The Women's

400 metres The 400 metres, or 400-meter dash, is a sprint event in track and field competitions. It has been featured in the athletics (sport), athletics programme at the Summer Olympics since 1896 for men and since 1964 for women. On a standard outdoor runn ...

at the

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Na ...

took place on 16–19 August at the

Beijing National Stadium The National Stadium (), also known as the Bird's Nest (), is an 80,000-capacity stadium in Beijing. The stadium was jointly designed by architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron from Basel-based architecture team Herzog & de Meuron, p ...

. The qualifying standards were 51.55 s (A standard) and 52.35 s (B standard). Favourites for the event included

Sanya Richards-Ross Sanya Richards-Ross (née Richards; born February 26, 1985) is a retired Jamaican-American track and field athlete, who competed internationally for the United States in the 400-meter sprint. Her notable accolades in this event include being th ...

and the reigning world champion, Christine Ohuruogu. In the final, Richards-Ross made a rapid start and quickly took the lead, while Ohuruogu ran a more even-paced race, but was well down the field entering the final straight. However, in the last 100 metres Richard-Ross, clearly tired from her earlier effort, began to tie up badly, while Ohuruogu began to surge through the field. At the line, Great Britain's Christine Ohuruogu won in 49.62 seconds to add the Olympic title to her World title, just pipping

Shericka Williams Shericka Williams (born 17 September 1985 in Black River, St. Elizabeth) is a Jamaican former sprinter. Together with Novlene Williams, Ronetta Smith and Lorraine Fenton she won a silver medal in 4 x 400 metres relay at the 2005 World Cham ...

by 0.07 seconds to take gold. Richards-Ross faded to third, and bronze, in 49.93.

Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows: No new world or Olympic records were set for this event.

Results

Round 1

Qualification: First 3 in each heat (Q) and the next 3 fastest (q) advance to the

Semifinals A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final matc ...

Semifinals

Qualification: First 2 in each heat (Q) and the next 2 fastest advance to the

Final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...

Final

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Athletics at the 2008 Summer Olympics - Women's 400 metres Athletics at the 2008 Summer Olympics 400 metres at the Olympics 2008 in women's athletics Women's events at the 2008 Summer Olympics