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

Women's 1500 metres at the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad
Venue	Athens Olympic Stadium
Dates	24–28 August
Competitors	48 from 25 nations
Winning time	3:57.90 NR
Medalists
Kelly Holmes   Great Britain   Tatyana Tomashova   Russia   Maria Cioncan   Romania

Athletics at the 2004 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		women
10,000 m		men		women
100 m hurdles				women
110 m hurdles		men
400 m hurdles		men		women
3000 m steeplechase		men
4×100 m relay		men		women
4×400 m relay		men		women
Road events
Marathon		men		women
20 km walk		men		women
50 km walk		men
Field events
Long jump		men		women
Triple jump		men		women
High jump		men		women
Pole vault		men		women
Shot put		men		women
Discus throw		men		women
Javelin throw		men		women
Hammer throw		men		women
Combined events
Heptathlon				women
Decathlon		men
Wheelchair races

The women's 1500 metres at the 2004 Summer Olympics as part of the athletics program were held at the Athens Olympic Stadium from August 24 to 28.

The first round comprised three heats with the first five gaining a direct qualification and then the next nine fastest across all heats progressing to the semifinals. The top five runners in each of the two semifinal heats moved on directly to the final, and they were immediately joined by the next two fastest from any of the semifinals.

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.^[1][2]

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, a milestone that had never been accomplished by any of the 1980s running legends Sebastian Coe, Steve Ovett, or Steve Cram.^[1]

Records

Prior to the competition, 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 Eastern European Summer Time (UTC+3)

Date	Time	Round
Tuesday, 24 August 2004	20:30	Round 1
Thursday, 26 August 2004	20:30	Semifinals
Saturday, 28 August 2004	20:30	Final

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.^[3]

Heat 1

Rank	Name	Nationality	Result	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
16	Bouchra Ghezielle	Morocco	DNS
16	Nouria Merah Benida	Algeria	DNS

Heat 2

Rank	Name	Nationality	Result	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
16	Iryna Lishchynska	Ukraine	DNF

Heat 3

Rank	Name	Nationality	Result	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
16	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.^[4]

Semifinal 1

Rank	Name	Nationality	Result	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	Name	Nationality	Result	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

^[5]

Rank	Name	Nationality	Result	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

1. "Golden double for Holmes". BBC Sport. 28 August 2004. Retrieved 13 October 2015.
2. Jump, Paul (28 August 2004). "Holmes cruises to golden double". Theguardian.com. Retrieved 13 October 2015.
3. "IAAF Athens 2004: Women's 1500m Heats". Athens 2004. IAAF. Retrieved 13 October 2015.
4. "IAAF Athens 2004: Women's 1500m Semifinals". Athens 2004. IAAF. Retrieved 12 October 2015.
5. "IAAF Athens 2004: Women's 1500m Final". Athens 2004. IAAF. Retrieved 12 October 2015.

External links

• IAAF Athens 2004 Olympic Coverage