The women's 1500 metres at the
2004 Summer Olympics as part of the
athletics program were held at the
Athens Olympic Stadium
The Olympic Stadium of Athens " Spyros Louis" ( el, Ολυμπιακό Στάδιο Αθηνών "Σπύρος Λούης", ''Olympiakó Stádio Athinon "Spyros Louis"'') is a sports stadium in Athens, Greece. It is a part of the Athens Olympic ...
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
Dame Kelly Holmes (born 19 April 1970) is a retired British middle distance athlete.
Holmes specialised in the 800 metres and 1,500 metres events and won gold medals for both distances at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. She set British ...
, 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
Maria Cioncan (19 June 1977 - 21 January 2007) was a middle distance runner from Romania, best known for winning a bronze medal in the 1500 metres event at the 2004 Summer Olympics.
Life
Born in Maieru, she set personal bests in both 800 and 1 ...
could not reach further to chase the leaders on a tight sprint finish, ending her up with a bronze.
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.
[
]
Records
, the existing World and Olympic records were as follows.
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
Eastern European Summer Time (EEST) is one of the names of the UTC+03:00 time zone, which is 3 hours ahead of Coordinated Universal Time. It is used as a summer daylight saving time in some European and Middle Eastern countries, which makes ...
(UTC+3
UTC+03:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +03:00. In areas using this time offset, the time is three hours later than the Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).
Following the ISO 8601 standard, a time with this offset would be wri ...
)
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.
Heat 1
Heat 2
Heat 3
Semifinals
Qualification rule: The top five finishers in each heat (Q) plus the next two fastest overall runners (q) advanced to the final.
Semifinal 1
Semifinal 2
Final
References
External links
IAAF Athens 2004 Olympic Coverage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Athletics At The 2004 Summer Olympics - Women's 1500 Metres
W
1500 metres at the Olympics
2004 in women's athletics
Women's events at the 2004 Summer Olympics