Athletics at the 1988 Summer Olympics – Women's 400 metres hurdles

Women's 400 metres hurdles
at the Games of the XXIV Olympiad

Venue

Olympic Stadium

Dates

25 September 1988 (heats)
27 September 1988 (semi-finals)
28 September 1988 (final)

Competitors

35 from 25 nations

Winning time

53.17 OR

Medalists

		Debbie Flintoff-King Australia
		Tatyana Ledovskaya Soviet Union
		Ellen Fiedler East Germany

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Athletics at the 1988 Summer Olympics

Track events
100 m	men	women
200 m	men	women
400 m	men	women
800 m	men	women
1500 m	men	women
3000 m		women
5000 m	men
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
50 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
Heptathlon		women
Decathlon	men
Wheelchair races
v t e

The Women's 400 metres Hurdles at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea had an entry list of 35 competitors, with five qualifying heats and two semifinals (16) before the final (8) took place on Wednesday September 28, 1988.

In 1987, the former world record holder Sabine Busch of the GDR, improved her best to 53.24 seconds, before going on to win the World Championship title in Rome in 53.62 secs, with Debbie Flintoff-King of Australia second, GDR team-mate Cornelia Ullrich third, and Jamaica's Sandra Farmer fourth. Both Ullrich and Farmer, who was now competing for the USA as Sandra Farmer-Patrick, failed to make it to Seoul. Farmer-Patrick was disqualified in her semifinal at the US Olympic trials for a lane infringement, while Ullrich missed out on a spot on the GDR Olympic team to Ellen Fiedler and Susanne Losch.

In Seoul, Fiedler set a new Olympic record in the heats, running 54.58 secs. Flintoff-King then further improved the Olympic record to 54.00 in the first semifinal, finishing just ahead of the little-known Soviet Tatyana Ledovskaya, who ran 54.01. Fiedler won the second semifinal in 54.28, with world champion Busch fourth.

In the final, Ledovskaya (lane 3) made the fastest start and still held a narrow lead at the eighth hurdle, with Fiedler (lane 6) second, Busch (lane 7) third and Flintoff-King (lane 5) back in fifth. By the tenth hurdle, Ledovskaya still led from Fiedler, with Flintoff-King closing and moving into third ahead of Bush. Flintoff-King continued to close on the run-in and passed Ledovskaya in the final stride, winning in the new Olympic record time of 53.17, to move to second on the world all-time list. Ledovskaya took the silver in 53.18, with Fiedler holding off Busch for the bronze, running 53.63 to Busch's 53.69. With six of the top seven running personal bests, the Seoul final rewrote the all-time list, with fifth-placed Sally Gunnell (54.03) and sixth-placed Gudrun Abt (54.04), moving to number 10 and 11 on the all-time list.

Medalists

Gold	Debbie Flintoff-King Australia
Silver	Tatyana Ledovskaya Soviet Union
Bronze	Ellen Fiedler East Germany

Records

These were the standing World and Olympic records (in seconds) prior to the 1988 Summer Olympics.

World Record	52.94	Marina Stepanova	Stuttgart (FRG)	September 17, 1986
Olympic Record	54.61	Nawal El Moutawakel	Los Angeles (USA)	August 8, 1984

The following Olympic records were set during this competition.

Date	Event	Athlete	Time	OR
September 25, 1988	Quarterfinal	Ellen Fiedler (GDR)	54.58 s	OR
September 26, 1988	Semifinal	Debbie Flintoff-King (AUS)	54.00 s	OR
September 28, 1988	Final	Debbie Flintoff-King (AUS)	53.17 s	OR

Final

RANK	FINAL	TIME
	Debbie Flintoff-King (AUS)	53.17(OR)
	Tatyana Ledovskaya (URS)	53.18
	Ellen Fiedler (GDR)	53.63
4.	Sabine Busch (GDR)	53.69
5.	Sally Gunnell (GBR)	54.03
6.	Gudrun Abt (FRG)	54.04
7.	Tatyana Kourochkina (URS)	54.39
8.	LaTanya Sheffield (USA)	55.32

Semi finals

RANK	HEAT 1	TIME
1.	Debbie Flintoff-King (AUS)	54.00(OR)
2.	Tatyana Ledovskaya (URS)	54.01
3.	LaTanya Sheffield (USA)	54.36
4.	Sally Gunnell (GBR)	54.48
5.	Anita Protti (SUI)	54.56
6.	Susanne Losch (GDR)	55.56
7.	Genowefa Błaszak (POL)	56.76
8.	Gretha Tromp (NED)	57.57

RANK	HEAT 2	TIME
1.	Ellen Fiedler (GDR)	54.28
2.	Tatyana Kourochkina (URS)	54.46
3.	Gudrun Abt (FRG)	54.53
4.	Sabine Busch (GDR)	54.71
5.	Cristina Pérez (ESP)	55.23
6.	Elaine McLaughlin (GBR)	55.91
7.	Schowonda Williams (USA)	56.71
8.	Chantal Beaugeant (FRA)	56.94

Qualifying heats

RANK	HEAT 1	TIME
1.	Susanne Losch (GDR)	55.90
2.	Tatyana Ledovskaya (URS)	55.91
3.	Elaine McLaughlin (GBR)	56.11
4.	Rose Tata-Muya (KEN)	56.18
5.	Marie Womplou (CIV)	57.35
6.	Christine Wynn (CAN)	58.00
7.	P.T. Usha (IND)	59.55

RANK	HEAT 2	TIME
1.	Sabine Busch (GDR)	55.96
2.	Gretha Tromp (NED)	56.11
3.	Genowefa Błaszak (POL)	56.18
4.	Jennifer Laurendet (AUS)	56.44
5.	Rosey Edeh (CAN)	56.59
6.	Ruth Kyalisiima (UGA)	59.62
7.	Nenita Adan (PHI)	1:01.92

RANK	HEAT 3	TIME
1.	Ellen Fiedler (GDR)	54.58(OR)
2.	Anita Protti (SUI)	54.81
3.	Tatyana Kurochkina (URS)	55.04
4.	Latanya Sheffield (USA)	55.61
5.	Maria Usifo (NGR)	55.99
6.	Helga Halldórsdóttir (ISL)	58.99
7.	Kim Soon-Ja (KOR)	59.78

RANK	HEAT 4	TIME
1.	Debbie Flintoff-King (AUS)	54.99
2.	Cristina Pérez (ESP)	55.29
3.	Sally Gunnell (GBR)	55.44
4.	Irmgard Trojer (ITA)	55.74
5.	Leslie Maxie (USA)	57.60
6.	Barbara Johnson (IRL)	58.61
7.	Chang Fen-Hwa (TPE)	1:00.16

RANK	HEAT 5	TIME
1.	Gudrun Abt (FRG)	55.72
2.	Schowonda Williams (USA)	55.98
3.	Chantal Beaugeant (FRA)	56.03
4.	Sally Hamilton-Fleming (AUS)	56.08
5.	Liliana Chalá (ECU)	57.15
6.	Semra Aksu (TUR)	57.20
7.	Simone Laidlow (GBR)	59.28

References

"Athletics at the 1988 Seoul Summer Games: Women's 400 metres Hurdles". sports-reference.com. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 7 October 2017.

External links

(in English) Official Report

v t e 400 metres hurdles at the Olympic Games
Summary
Men	1900 1904 1908 1912 1920 1924 1928 1932 1936 1948 1952 1956 1960 1964 1968 1972 1976 1980 1984 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2008 2012 2016 2020 2024
Women	1900 1904 1908 1912 1920 1924 1928 1932 1936 1948 1952 1956 1960 1964 1968 1972 1976 1980 1984 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2008 2012 2016 2020 2024

v t e Olympic champions in women's 400 metres hurdles
1984: Nawal El Moutawakel (MAR) 1988: Debbie Flintoff-King (AUS) 1992: Sally Gunnell (GBR) 1996: Deon Hemmings (JAM) 2000: Irina Privalova (RUS) 2004: Fani Halkia (GRE) 2008: Melaine Walker (JAM) 2012: Lashinda Demus (USA) 2016: Dalilah Muhammad (USA) 2020: Sydney McLaughlin (USA) 2024: Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone (USA)

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