Athletics at the 2004 Summer Olympics – Women's 1500 metres

The final started out quickly with the fastest qualifier Natalya Yevdokimova taking an insurmountable lead for the Russians alongside her teammates Olga Yegorova and reigning world champion Tatyana Tomashova. Great Britain's Kelly Holmes, who had earlier won the gold medal in the 800 metres, was expected to challenge her Russian rivals and the rest of the field for a possible Olympic double. Throughout the race, Holmes stayed calmly at the back of the field, lying eighth at the bell. With only one more lap to go, she bided her time to pull away from the rest of the runners through the curve, keeping an eye on the leaders. Holmes made a wider move with only 100 metres remaining to pass the leader Tomashova and sprinted down the home stretch to take the gold medal, setting a new British record of 3:57.90. Tomashova closed the race quickly to get the silver, while Romania's Maria Cioncan could not reach further to chase the leaders on a tight sprint finish, ending her up with a bronze.^[2][3]

Holmes' feat made her one of Great Britain's most successful athletes in Olympic history, and the first to achieve an Olympic middle-distance double by either a male or a female, for 84 years, a feat that not accomplished by the 1980s running legends Sebastian Coe, Steve Ovett, and Steve Cram.^[2]

Records

Prior to the competition^[update], the existing World and Olympic records were as follows.

World record	Qu Yunxia (CHN)	3:50.46	Beijing, China	11 September 1993
Olympic record	Paula Ivan (ROM)	3:53.96	Seoul, South Korea	1 October 1988

No new records were set during the competition.

Qualification

The qualification period for athletics was 1 January 2003 to 9 August 2004. For the women's 1500 metres, each National Olympic Committee was permitted to enter up to three athletes that had run the race in 4:05.80 or faster during the qualification period. If an NOC had no athletes that qualified under that standard, one athlete that had run the race in 4:07.15 or faster could be entered.

Schedule

All times are

Results

Round 1

Qualification rule: The first five finishers in each heat (Q) plus the next nine fastest overall runners (q) advanced to the semifinals.^[4]

Heat 1

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Tatyana Tomashova	Russia	4:06.06	Q
2	Nataliya Tobias	Ukraine	4:06.06	Q
3	Nuria Fernández	Spain	4:06.29	Q
4	Anna Jakubczak	Poland	4:06.37	Q
5	Elvan Abeylegesse	Turkey	4:06.42	Q
6	Carrie Tollefson	United States	4:06.46	q
7	Hayley Tullett	Great Britain	4:07.27	q
8	Carla Sacramento	Portugal	4:07.73	q
9	Courtney Babcock	Canada	4:08.18
10	Latifa Essarokh	France	4:09.08
11	Mestawat Tadesse	Ethiopia	4:11.78
12	Elena Iagăr	Romania	4:11.48
13	Silvia Felipo	Andorra	4:44.40	SB
14	Sloan Siegrist	Guam	4:44.53
	Bouchra Ghezielle	Morocco	DNS
	Nouria Merah Benida	Algeria	DNS

Heat 2

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Natalya Yevdokimova	Russia	4:05.55	Q
2	Kelly Holmes	Great Britain	4:05.58	Q
3	Daniela Yordanova	Bulgaria	4:05.87	Q, SB
4	Maria Martins	France	4:05.95	Q
5	Hasna Benhassi	Morocco	4:05.98	Q
6	Lidia Chojecka	Poland	4:06.13	q
7	Iris Fuentes-Pila	Spain	4:06.32	q
8	Nahida Touhami	Algeria	4:06.41	q
9	Konstadina Efedaki	Greece	4:06.73	q
10	Malindi Elmore	Canada	4:09.81
11	Jasminka Guber	Bosnia and Herzegovina	4:17.75	PB
12	Meskerem Legesse	Ethiopia	4:18.03
13	Alina Cucerzan	Romania	4:18.07
14	Elena Guerra	Uruguay	4:35.31
15	Kanchhi Maya Koju	Nepal	4:38.17	PB
	Iryna Lishchynska	Ukraine	DNF

Heat 3

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Maria Cioncan	Romania	4:06.68	Q
2	Carmen Douma-Hussar	Canada	4:06.90	Q
3	Wioletta Janowska	Poland	4:06.91	Q
4	Nancy Jebet Lagat	Kenya	4:06.94	Q
5	Kutre Dulecha	Ethiopia	4:06.95	Q
6	Olga Yegorova	Russia	4:07.14	q
7	Natalia Rodríguez	Spain	4:07.19	q
8	Hind Dehiba	France	4:07.96
9	Nelya Neporadna	Ukraine	4:08.60
10	Trine Pilskog	Norway	4:08.61
11	Sarah Jamieson	Australia	4:09.25
12	Judit Varga	Hungary	4:09.36
13	Joanne Pavey	Great Britain	4:12.50
14	Tatiana Borisova	Kyrgyzstan	4:13.36
15	Sumaira Zahoor	Pakistan	4:49.33
	Rosa Saul	Angola	DNS

Semifinals

Qualification rule: The top five finishers in each heat (Q) plus the next two fastest overall runners (q) advanced to the final.^[5]

Semifinal 1

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Maria Cioncan	Romania	4:06.69	Q
2	Anna Jakubczak	Poland	4:06.77	Q
3	Tatyana Tomashova	Russia	4:06.80	Q
4	Elvan Abeylegesse	Turkey	4:07.10	Q
5	Hasna Benhassi	Morocco	4:07.39	Q
6	Nataliya Tobias	Ukraine	4:07.55
7	Nancy Jebet Lagat	Kenya	4:07.57
8	Kutre Dulecha	Ethiopia	4:07.63
9	Nuria Fernández	Spain	4:07.68
10	Iris Fuentes-Pila	Spain	4:07.69
11	Hayley Tullett	Great Britain	4:08.92
12	Konstadina Efedaki	Greece	4:09.37

Semifinal 2

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Natalya Yevdokimova	Russia	4:04.66	Q
2	Kelly Holmes	Great Britain	4:04.77	Q
3	Lidia Chojecka	Poland	4:04.83	Q
4	Natalia Rodríguez	Spain	4:04.91	Q
5	Daniela Yordanova	Bulgaria	4:04.94	Q, SB
6	Carmen Douma-Hussar	Canada	4:05.09	q
7	Olga Yegorova	Russia	4:05.57	q
8	Nahida Touhami	Algeria	4:07.21
9	Carrie Tollefson	United States	4:08.55
10	Carla Sacramento	Portugal	4:10.85
11	Wioletta Janowska	Poland	4:11.41
12	Maria Martins	France	4:12.76

Final

^[6]

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
	Kelly Holmes	Great Britain	3:57.90	NR
	Tatyana Tomashova	Russia	3:58.12	PB
	Maria Cioncan	Romania	3:58.39	PB
4	Natalya Yevdokimova	Russia	3:59.05	PB
5	Daniela Yordanova	Bulgaria	3:59.10	PB
6	Lidia Chojecka	Poland	3:59.27	SB
7	Anna Jakubczak	Poland	4:00.15	PB
8	Elvan Abeylegesse	Turkey	4:00.67
9	Carmen Douma-Hussar	Canada	4:02.31	PB
10	Natalia Rodríguez	Spain	4:03.01	SB
11	Olga Yegorova	Russia	4:05.65
12	Hasna Benhassi	Morocco	4:12.90

References