Athletics at the 1976 Summer Olympics – Women's 1500 metres

Women's 1500 metres at the Games of the XXI Olympiad
Venue	Olympic Stadium
Date	28–30 July
Competitors	36 from 19 nations
Winning time	4:05.48
Medalists
Tatyana Kazankina   Soviet Union   Gunhild Hoffmeister   East Germany   Ulrike Bruns   East Germany

Athletics at the 1976 Summer Olympics
Track events
100 m		men		women
200 m		men		women
400 m		men		women
800 m		men		women
1500 m		men		women
5000 m		men
10,000 m		men
100 m hurdles				women
110 m hurdles		men
400 m hurdles		men
3000 m steeplechase		men
4×100 m relay		men		women
4×400 m relay		men		women
Road events
Marathon		men
20 km walk		men
Field events
Long jump		men		women
Triple jump		men
High jump		men		women
Pole vault		men
Shot put		men		women
Discus throw		men		women
Javelin throw		men		women
Hammer throw		men
Combined events
Pentathlon				women
Decathlon		men

The Women's 1500 metres competition at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, Canada was held at the Olympic Stadium on 23–26 July.

Competition format

The Women's 1500m competition consisted of heats (Round 1), Semifinals and a Final. The three fastest competitors from each race in the heats plus the next two fastest overall qualified for the Semifinals. The four fastest competitors from each of the Semifinal races plus the next fastest overall advanced to the Final.

Records

Prior to the competition, the existing World and Olympic records were as follows.

World record	Tatyana Kazankina (URS)	3:56.0	Podolsk, Soviet Union	28 June 1976
Olympic record	Lyudmila Bragina (URS)	4:01.4	Munich, West Germany	9 September 1972

Results

Round 1

Qual. rule: first 4 of each heat (Q) plus the next two fastest times (q) qualified.

Heat 1

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Dorio, GabriellaGabriella Dorio	Italy	4:10.84	Q
2	Smekhnova, RaisaRaisa Smekhnova	Soviet Union	4:10.88	Q
3	Merrill, JanJan Merrill	United States	4:10.92	Q
4	Stewart, MaryMary Stewart	Great Britain	4:11.10	Q
5	Puică, MaricicaMaricica Puică	Romania	4:12.62
6	Pekhlivanova, RositsaRositsa Pekhlivanova	Bulgaria	4:13.11
7	Amoore, JudyJudy Amoore	Australia	4:14.22
8	Van Roy, BernadetteBernadette Van Roy	Belgium	4:16.27
9	Lázár, MagdolnaMagdolna Lázár	Hungary	4:23.30

Heat 2

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Bragina, LyudmilaLyudmila Bragina	Soviet Union	4:07.11	Q
2	Wartenberg, ChristianeChristiane Wartenberg	East Germany	4:07.13	Q
3	Holmén, NinaNina Holmén	Finland	4:07.14	Q
4	Waitz, GreteGrete Waitz	Norway	4:07.20	Q
5	Wellmann, EllenEllen Wellmann	West Germany	4:07.20	q
6	Larrieu Smith, FrancieFrancie Larrieu Smith	United States	4:07.21	q
7	Rodger, DianneDianne Rodger	New Zealand	4:12.81
8	Wright, ThelmaThelma Wright	Canada	4:15.23
9	Niang, NdewNdew Niang	Senegal	4:44.64

Heat 3

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Bruns, UlrikeUlrike Bruns	East Germany	4:11.62	Q
2	Kazankina, TatyanaTatyana Kazankina	Soviet Union	4:12.10	Q
3	Yatsinska, VeselaVesela Yatsinska	Bulgaria	4:12.72	Q
4	Castelein, SoniaSonia Castelein	Belgium	4:12.95	Q
5	Yule, PennyPenny Yule	Great Britain	4:13.36
6	Silai, IleanaIleana Silai	Romania	4:13.61
7	Gargano, MargheritaMargherita Gargano	Italy	4:15.94
8	Valero, CarmenCarmen Valero	Spain	4:17.65
9	Werthner, PennyPenny Werthner	Canada	4:18.19

Heat 4

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Kraus, BrigitteBrigitte Kraus	West Germany	4:07.79	Q
2	Hoffmeister, GunhildGunhild Hoffmeister	East Germany	4:08.23	Q
3	Mărăşescu, NataliaNatalia Mărăşescu	Romania	4:08.31	Q
4	Shtereva, NikolinaNikolina Shtereva	Bulgaria	4:08.38	Q
5	Tracey-Purcell, MaryMary Tracey-Purcell	Ireland	4:08.63
6	Poor, CyndyCyndy Poor	United States	4:08.89
7	Audain, AnneAnne Audain	New Zealand	4:10.68
8	Cruciata, SilvanaSilvana Cruciata	Italy	4:16.78
9	Guðmundsdóttir, LiljaLilja Guðmundsdóttir	Iceland	4:20.27

Semifinals

Heat 1

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Bruns, UlrikeUlrike Bruns	East Germany	4:02.13	Q
2	Shtereva, NikolinaNikolina Shtereva	Bulgaria	4:02.33	Q
3	Bragina, LyudmilaLyudmila Bragina	Soviet Union	4:02.41	Q
4	Hoffmeister, GunhildGunhild Hoffmeister	East Germany	4:02.45	Q
5	Merrill, JanJan Merrill	United States	4:02.61	q
6	Smekhnova, RaisaRaisa Smekhnova	Soviet Union	4:03.20
7	Kraus, BrigitteBrigitte Kraus	West Germany	4:04.21
8	Waitz, GreteGrete Waitz	Norway	4:04.80
9	Castelein, SoniaSonia Castelein	Belgium	4:13.46

Heat 2

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Kazankina, TatyanaTatyana Kazankina	Soviet Union	4:07.37	Q
2	Holmén, NinaNina Holmén	Finland	4:07.53	Q
3	Wellmann, EllenEllen Wellmann	West Germany	4:07.54	Q
4	Dorio, GabriellaGabriella Dorio	Italy	4:07.61	Q
5	Stewart, MaryMary Stewart	Great Britain	4:07.65
6	Yatsinska, VeselaVesela Yatsinska	Bulgaria	4:07.89
7	Mărăşescu, NataliaNatalia Mărăşescu	Romania	4:07.92
8	Wartenberg, ChristianeChristiane Wartenberg	East Germany	4:08.28
9	Larrieu Smith, FrancieFrancie Larrieu Smith	United States	4:09.07

Final

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
	Kazankina, TatyanaTatyana Kazankina	Soviet Union	4:05.48
	Hoffmeister, GunhildGunhild Hoffmeister	East Germany	4:06.02
	Bruns, UlrikeUlrike Bruns	East Germany	4:06.09
4	Shtereva, NikolinaNikolina Shtereva	Bulgaria	4:06.57
5	Bragina, LyudmilaLyudmila Bragina	Soviet Union	4:07.20
6	Dorio, GabriellaGabriella Dorio	Italy	4:07.27
7	Wellmann, EllenEllen Wellmann	West Germany	4:07.91
8	Merrill, JanJan Merrill	United States	4:08.54
9	Holmén, NinaNina Holmén	Finland	4:09.55

References

• Official Olympic Report, la84foundation.org. Retrieved August 20, 2012.