Women's 400 metres
at the Games of the XXXII Olympiad
Olympic Athletics
VenueJapan National Stadium
Dates3 August 2021 (heats)
4 August 2021 (semifinals)
6 August 2021 (final)[1]
Competitors45 from 34 nations
Winning time48.36
Medalists
1st place, gold medalist(s) Shaunae Miller-Uibo
 Bahamas
2nd place, silver medalist(s) Marileidy Paulino
 Dominican Republic
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) Allyson Felix
 United States

The women's 400 metres event at the 2020 Summer Olympics took place from 3 to 6 August 2021 at the Japan National Stadium.[1] 45 athletes from 34 nations competed.[2] Shaunae Miller-Uibo won the gold medal in a personal best of 48.36 secs, a time which ranks her sixth on the world all-time list. In successfully defending her title, Miller-Uibo joined Marie-Jose Perec as the only women to win two Olympic 400 metres titles.

Summary

Returning from Rio was Gold Medalist Shaunae Miller-Uibo, remembered for her diving finish to beat Allyson Felix. Felix was back as well, now age 35 and a mother, running in her fifth Olympics. Each time she sets a season best, it is a masters world record. But the list of non-participants is notable; World Champion Salwa Eid Naser suspended a little over a month before the Olympics due to three whereabouts failures; Olympic and World Championship bronze medalist Shericka Jackson, who focused her season on the shorter sprints, netting a bronze medal in the 100 metres; Namibian teenage sensations Beatrice Masilingi, number one in 2020 and Christine Mboma who ran the #7 time in history the same day Eid Naser was suspended, both were barred from running 400 or 800 due to the new Testosterone regulations. Both ran in the 200 metres, Mboma taking silver. Another teenager, NCAA Champion Athing Mu, chose to focus her efforts on the 800 metres, netting a gold medal.

It took sub-50 in the semi-finals just to get into the final. Marileidy Paulino was the fastest qualifier at 49.34, her Dominican National Record, putting her in the center of the track, lane 5 for the final. The Jamaicans Stephenie Ann McPherson and Candice McLeod in 6 and 4 respectively, were the fastest around the first turn, with Felix, blind to her competitors in lane 9, also getting out well. Roxana Gómez pulled up after 100 m. Coming off her poor performance in the 200 final, Miller-Uibo ran conservatively in the first 200 metres, still keeping in close contact with Felix well within her view from lane 7. Towards the end of the first straight, Jodie Williams moved up to join McPherson's early pace in lane 8. Through the final turn, Miller-Uibo and Paulino began to assert themselves, with Miller-Uibo advancing to a 2 metre lead coming off the turn. Behind her, Felix, Williams, McPherson and Paulino were all in a row to battle for the medals. Down the final straight, Paulino clearly pulled away, but was too far back to chase down Miller-Uibo who kept increasing her lead. Williams fell back but McPherson and Felix battled until Felix pulled ahead half way towards home.

Miller-Uibo joined Marie-José Pérec as the only women to successfully defend the Olympic 400 metres title. She improved her personal best, which was the #6 time in history and the North American Continental Record. Paulino set her second national record of the competition, moving her to #20 of all time. This season she improved her personal best by 2.68 seconds. Felix nabbed her tenth Olympic medal, breaking a tie with Merlene Ottey as the most of any woman in athletics and set her third Masters World Record of the season.[3]

Background

This was the 15th time the event was held, having appeared at every Olympics since 1964.

Qualification

A National Olympic Committee (NOC) could enter up to 3 qualified athletes in the women's 400 metres event if all athletes meet the entry standard or qualify by ranking during the qualifying period. (The limit of 3 has been in place since the 1930 Olympic Congress.) The qualifying standard is 51.35 seconds. This standard was "set for the sole purpose of qualifying athletes with exceptional performances unable to qualify through the IAAF World Rankings pathway." The world rankings, based on the average of the best five results for the athlete over the qualifying period and weighted by the importance of the meet, will then be used to qualify athletes until the cap of 48 is reached.[2][4]

The qualifying period was originally from 1 May 2019 to 29 June 2020. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the period was suspended from 6 April 2020 to 30 November 2020, with the end date extended to 29 June 2021. The world rankings period start date was also changed from 1 May 2019 to 30 June 2020; athletes who had met the qualifying standard during that time were still qualified, but those using world rankings would not be able to count performances during that time. The qualifying time standards could be obtained in various meets during the given period that have the approval of the IAAF. Both indoor and outdoor meets were eligible for qualifying. The most recent Area Championships may be counted in the ranking, even if not during the qualifying period.[2][5]

NOCs can also use their universality place—each NOC can enter one female athlete regardless of time if they had no female athletes meeting the entry standard for an athletics event—in the 400 metres.[2]

Competition format

The event continued to use the three-round format introduced in 2012.[6]

Records

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

World record Marita Koch (GDR)47.60 Canberra, Australia6 October 1985
Olympic record Marie-José Pérec (FRA)48.25 Atlanta, Georgia, United States29 July 1996
Area
Time (s) Athlete Nation
Africa (records)48.54Christine Mboma Namibia
Asia (records)48.14Salwa Eid Naser Bahrain
Europe (records)47.60 WRMarita Koch East Germany
North, Central America
and Caribbean
(records)
48.37Shaunae Miller-Uibo Bahamas
Oceania (records)48.63Cathy Freeman Australia
South America (records)49.64Ximena Restrepo Colombia

Schedule

All times are Japan Standard Time (UTC+9)

The women's 400 metres took place over three separate days.[1]

Date Time Round
Tuesday, 3 August 20219:00Round 1
Wednesday, 4 August 202118:30Semifinals
Friday, 6 August 202119:50Final

Results

Round 1

Qualification rule: first three finishers of each heat (Q) plus the next six fastest times (q) qualify to the semifinals.[7]

Heat 1

RankLaneAthleteNationReactionTimeNotes
12Shaunae Miller-Uibo Bahamas0.13250.50Q
26Roxana Gómez Cuba0.18250.76Q, =PB
37Sada Williams Barbados0.15451.36Q, SB
48Aliyah Abrams Guyana0.16051.44q, SB
55Kyra Constantine Canada0.16751.69q
63Anita Horvat Slovenia0.18552.34
74Patience Okon George Nigeria0.18752.41

Heat 2

RankLaneAthleteNationReactionTimeNotes
13Jodie Williams Great Britain0.17050.99Q
24Quanera Hayes United States0.17551.07Q
37Cátia Azevedo Portugal0.15551.26Q
45Lisanne de Witte Netherlands0.17251.68q, SB
56Bendere Oboya Australia0.17252.37
2Amantle Montsho Botswana0.125DNF
8Meleni Rodney Grenada0.196DNF
9Aliya Boshnak Jordan0.238DQTR 17.3.1

Heat 3

RankLaneAthleteNationReactionTimeNotes
14Allyson Felix United States0.16850.84Q
22Roneisha McGregor Jamaica0.18051.14 (51.138)Q
36Lada Vondrová Czech Republic0.18251.14 (51.139)Q, PB
43Ama Pipi Great Britain0.12651.17q
57Tiffani Marinho Brazil0.21052.11
68Leni Shida Uganda0.20152.48
75Samantha Dirks Belize0.17754.16SB
89Tetyana Melnyk Ukraine0.17954.99

Heat 4

RankLaneAthleteNationReactionTimeNotes
15Candice McLeod Jamaica0.20251.09Q
26Amandine Brossier France0.17151.65Q
37Susanne Walli Austria0.20952.19Q
43Corinna Schwab Germany0.15552.29
59Irini Vasiliou Greece0.16453.16
64Galefele Moroko Botswana0.20255.89SB
8Nicole Yeargin Great Britain0.182DQTR 17.3.1
2Cynthia Bolingo BelgiumDNS

Heat 5

RankLaneAthleteNationReactionTimeNotes
13Stephenie Ann McPherson Jamaica0.13850.89Q
24Natalia Kaczmarek Poland0.15051.06Q
35Paola Morán Mexico0.16251.18Q, SB
46Phil Healy Ireland0.15851.98
58Hellen Syombua Kalii Kenya0.22152.70
62Agnė Šerkšnienė Lithuania0.17252.78
77Natassha McDonald Canada0.16153.54

Heat 6

RankLaneAthleteNationReactionTimeNotes
12Marileidy Paulino Dominican Republic0.18450.06Q
26Wadeline Jonathas United States0.20950.93Q
34Lieke Klaver Netherlands0.20051.37Q
47Aauri Bokesa Spain0.23551.89q, SB
59Eleni Artymata Cyprus0.22451.91q
68Barbora Malíková Czech Republic0.19552.83
73Shalysa Wray Cayman Islands0.21653.61
85Christine Botlogetswe Botswana0.21453.99SB

Semifinals

Qualification rule: first two finishers of each heat (Q) plus the next two fastest times (q) qualify to the final.[8]

Semifinal 1

RankLaneAthleteNationReactionTimeNotes
15Marileidy Paulino Dominican Republic0.17249.38Q, NR
27Candice McLeod Jamaica0.16249.51Q, PB
34Roxana Gómez Cuba0.16849.71q, PB
46Quanera Hayes United States0.15349.81q
53Eleni Artymata Cyprus0.19150.80NR
69Susanne Walli Austria0.22451.52PB
72Ama Pipi Great Britain0.14051.59
88Lada Vondrová Czech Republic0.18351.62

Semifinal 2

RankLaneAthleteNationReactionTimeNotes
16Shaunae Miller-Uibo Bahamas0.15549.60Q
25Jodie Williams Great Britain0.13649.97Q, PB
34Roneisha McGregor Jamaica0.18150.34
47Wadeline Jonathas United States0.18950.51
59Paola Morán Mexico0.16851.06SB
68Lieke Klaver Netherlands0.20851.37
72Aliyah Abrams Guyana0.13751.46
83Aauri Bokesa Spain0.19451.57PB

Semifinal 3

RankLaneAthleteNationReactionTimeNotes
15Stephenie Ann McPherson Jamaica0.13449.34Q, PB
26Allyson Felix United States0.17949.89Q, SB MWR
38Sada Williams Barbados0.16750.11NR
44Natalia Kaczmarek Poland0.16550.79
53Kyra Constantine Canada0.17751.22
67Amandine Brossier France0.17051.30
79Cátia Azevedo Portugal0.14651.32
82Lisanne de Witte Netherlands0.17852.09

Final

RankLaneAthleteNationReactionTimeNotes
1st place, gold medalist(s)7Shaunae Miller-Uibo Bahamas0.16248.36AR
2nd place, silver medalist(s)5Marileidy Paulino Dominican Republic0.17649.20NR
3rd place, bronze medalist(s)9Allyson Felix United States0.15849.46SB MWR
46Stephenie Ann McPherson Jamaica0.13149.61
54Candice McLeod Jamaica0.15249.87
68Jodie Williams Great Britain0.12749.97=PB
72Quanera Hayes United States0.17650.88
3Roxana Gómez Cuba0.191DNF

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Athletics Competition Schedule". Tokyo 2020. Archived from the original on 9 July 2021. Retrieved 22 June 2021.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Qualification System – Games of the XXXI Olympiad – Athletics" (PDF). IAAF. Archived (PDF) from the original on 31 March 2019. Retrieved 31 March 2019.
  3. Joshua Berlinger, Aditi Sangal, Ben Morse, Ben Church and Adam Renton (6 August 2021). "Shaunae Miller-Uibo retains gold in women's 400m as Allyson Felix gets 10th Olympic medal". CNN. Archived from the original on 7 August 2021. Retrieved 7 October 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  4. "IAAF to follow other sports with world ranking system for athletes". BBC Sport. 7 March 2018. Archived from the original on 15 March 2018. Retrieved 2 August 2018.
  5. "Olympic qualification period suspended until 1 December 2020". World Athletics. 6 April 2020. Archived from the original on 9 April 2020. Retrieved 9 April 2020.
  6. "Athletics Explanatory Guide" (PDF). Tokyo 2020. August 2019. Archived (PDF) from the original on 24 June 2021. Retrieved 22 June 2021.
  7. "Round 1 Results" (PDF). 2020 Summer Olympics. Omega SA. 3 August 2021. Archived (PDF) from the original on 3 August 2021. Retrieved 3 August 2021.
  8. "Semi-Final Start List" (PDF). 2020 Summer Olympics. Omega SA. 3 August 2021. Archived (PDF) from the original on 3 August 2021. Retrieved 3 August 2021.
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