Athletics at the 2004 Summer Olympics – Women's 20 kilometres walk

Women's 20 kilometres walk
at the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad
VenueAthens Olympic Stadium
Dates23 August
Competitors57 from 35 nations
Winning time1:29.12
Medalists
   Greece
   Russia
   Australia
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 20 kilometres race walk at the 2004 Summer Olympics as part of the athletics program was held through the streets of Athens with the start and finish at the Athens Olympic Stadium on August 23.[1]

The race had started with a strong, good-sized bunch of fifty-seven walkers keeping together through the field. As the group left the stadium falling apart, Russia's Olimpiada Ivanova took the front of the pack on the opening 2k laps, followed by several of the anticipated favorites, which included 2000 Olympic champion Wang Liping, the Australian sisters Jane and Natalie Saville, and the Greek duo Athina Papayianni and Athanasia Tsoumeleka.

By the half way mark, fourteen walkers were still in close contention with Ivanova maintaining the lead and Belarus' Ryta Turava staying beside her to shorten the gap. As the Belarusian began to lose contact, Ivanova steadily broke away from the group to own the race, until Jane Saville set the pace much faster to chase her on the succeeding lap. With just 2k left to go, home favorite Tsoumeleka zoomed past the two remaining chasers Ivanova and Saville on a late charge to quickly build up a seemingly insurmountable lead.

Entering the Olympic Stadium with a rapturous welcome from the partisan crowd, Tsoumeleka walked jubilantly into the final stretch to deliver the Greeks their first ever Olympic track and field gold medal at these Games. She finished the race in 1:29.12, just four seconds ahead of the eventual silver medalist Ivanova.[2] Meanwhile, Saville had finally erased her setback of being disqualified at the Sydney Olympics four years earlier to successfully claim the bronze, holding Turava off the podium to fourth.[3][4]

Records

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

World record  Wang Yan (CHN) 1:26:22 Guangzhou, China 19 November 2001
Olympic record  Wang Liping (CHN) 1:29:05 Sydney, Australia 28 September 2000

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 20 kilometres race walk, each National Olympic Committee was permitted to enter up to three athletes that had run the race in 1:33:30 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 1:38:00 or faster could be entered.

Schedule

All times are Greece Standard Time (UTC+2)

Date Time Round
Monday, 23 August 2004 09:00 Final

Results

Rank Name Nationality Result Notes
1st Athanasia Tsoumeleka Greece 1:29.12 PB
2nd Olimpiada Ivanova Russia 1:29.16
3rd Jane Saville Australia 1:29.25
4 Ryta Turava Belarus 1:29:39
5 Melanie Seeger Germany 1:29:52
6 Elisa Rigaudo Italy 1:29:57
7 María Vasco Spain 1:30:06
8 Wang Liping China 1:30:16
9 Elena Ginko Belarus 1:30:22
10 Athina Papayianni Greece 1:30:37
11 Rossella Giordano Italy 1:30:39
12 Kjersti Plätzer Norway 1:30:49 SB
13 Yuliya Voyevodina Russia 1:31:02
14 Song Hongjuan China 1:31:27
15 Valentina Tsybulskaya Belarus 1:31:49
16 Sabine Zimmer Germany 1:31:59
17 Yelena Nikolayeva Russia 1:32:16
18 Elisabetta Perrone Italy 1:32:21 SB
19 Kristina Saltanovič Lithuania 1:32:22
20 Susana Feitor Portugal 1:32:47
21 Sylwia Korzeniowska Poland 1:33:06
22 Zuzana Maliková Slovakia 1:33:17
23 Sonata Milušauskaitė Lithuania 1:33:36
24 Barbora Dibelková Czech Republic 1:33:37
25 Inês Henriques Portugal 1:33:53
26 Maribel Gonçalves Portugal 1:33:59
27 Norica Câmpean Romania 1:34:30
28 Svetlana Tolstaya Kazakhstan 1:34:43
29 Ana Maria Groza Romania 1:34:56
30 Rocío Florido Spain 1:35:32
31 Hristina Kokotou Greece 1:35:43
32 Jiang Jing China 1:35:56
33 Yeliz Ay Turkey 1:36:02
34 Victoria Palacios Mexico 1:36:07
35 Yuan Yufang Malaysia 1:36:34
36 Natalie Saville Australia 1:36:54
37 Daniela Cîrlan Romania 1:37:14
38 Cheryl Webb Australia 1:37:40
39 Marie Polli Switzerland 1:37:53
40 Mayumi Kawasaki Japan 1:37:56
41 Geovana Irusta Bolivia 1:38:36
42 Vira Zozulya Ukraine 1:38:45
43 Teresa Vaill United States 1:38:47
44 Edina Füsti Hungary 1:39:45
45 Anita Liepiņa Latvia 1:39:54
46 Sandra Zapata Colombia 1:42:22
47 Nicolene Cronje South Africa 1:42:37
48 Alessandra Picagevicz Brazil 1:46:21
49 Teresita Collado Guatemala 1:46:41
50 Yelena Kuznetsova Kazakhstan 1:49:08
51 Yolene Raffin Mauritius 1:49:28
52 Fumilay Fonseca São Tomé and Príncipe 2:04:54 PB
53 Olive Loughnane Ireland DNF
54 Rosario Sánchez Mexico DNF
55 Nevena Mineva Bulgaria DNF
56 María Teresa Gargallo Spain DSQ
57 Kim Mi-jung South Korea DSQ

References

  1. "IAAF Athens 2004: Women's 20km Race Walk Final". Athens 2004. IAAF. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
  2. Berlin, Peter (23 August 2004). "A hunter is hunted down in 800". The New York Times. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
  3. Arcoleo, Laura (23 August 2004). "Surprise Greek win – Women's 20km Race Walk Olympic report". IAAF. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
  4. "Greece wins walk gold". BBC Sport. 23 August 2004. Retrieved 18 October 2015.

External links

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