Athletics at the 1972 Summer Olympics – Women's 800 metres

These are the official results of the Women's 800 metres event at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich. The competition was held on 31 of August and 3 of September.[1] The favorite coming into the Olympics was West German champion and world record holder Hildegard Falck. In the 1971 West German Championships she became the first woman to officially better two minutes. She was the pre Olympic favorite to win the gold on home soil, the rest of the field was wide open to claim the other podium spots.[1]

Women's 800 metres
at the Games of the XX Olympiad
VenueOlympic Stadium, Munich, West Germany
Date31 August 1972 & 3 September 1972
Competitors38 from 28 nations
Winning time1:58.55 OR
Medalists
1st place, gold medalist(s) Hildegard Falck
 West Germany
2nd place, silver medalist(s) Nijolė Sabaitė
 Soviet Union
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) Gunhild Hoffmeister
 East Germany
← 1968
1976 →

In the final, like the men's race, the favorite was the slowest starter, though Falck quickly moved into sixth place. By the end of the first lap the field was tightly packed, Ileana Silai, Vera Nikolić and Svetla Zlateva and three abreast for the lead at 58.31. At 500 metres, Falck decided to move and slightly accelerated away from Nijolė Sabaitė and Gunhild Hoffmeister but found herself blocked behind the wall. The wall began to break up during the final turn, Silai the first to start fading allowing Falck some running room, coming off the turn she accelerated into the lead. Pulling away from the field Falck relaxed to cruise across the finish line. Sabaitė made a late run at her from a huge deficit, as she came into view, Falck had to accelerate a little to hold her off for a narrow win. Hoffmeister followed Sabaitė in passing the pack for bronze, but was too far behind to be competitive for higher medals.

While the 2 minute barrier had been broken barely a year before this race, five women finished under 2 minutes here, with the remainder of the field bunched within .17 of a second of 2 minutes. While the world record was 1:58.5 (hand timed at the time), this electronically timed 1:58.55 was intrinsically faster, but that conversion was not included in record keeping. Zlateva would improve the world record the following year.

Heats

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The top three runners in each heat (blue) and the next fastest (pink), advanced to the semifinal round.

Heat one

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Rank Athlete Nation Lane Time
1 Hildegard Falck   West Germany 6 2:01.52
2 Madeline Manning   United States 7 2:02.63
3 Cheryl Peasley   Australia 8 2:03.11
4 Mary Tracey-Purcell   Ireland 3 2:04.18
5 Martine Duvivier   France 2 2:04.87
6 Donata Govoni   Italy 1 2:05.24
7 Elisabeth Neuenschwander   Switzerland 4 2:06.89
- Arda Kalpakian   Lebanon 5 DNS

Heat two

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Rank Athlete Nation Lane Time Notes
1 Svetla Zlateva   Bulgaria 7 1:58.93 OR
2 Vera Nikolić   Yugoslavia 6 1:59.62
3 Sylvia Schenk   West Germany 1 2:02.22
4 Elżbieta Skowrońska   Poland 2 2:03.26
5 Jenny Orr   Australia 8 2:04.46
6 Cheryl Toussaint   United States 4 2:08.90
7 Claire Walsh   Ireland 3 2:08.98
8 Heather Gooding   Barbados 5 2:19.69

Heat three

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Rank Athlete Nation Lane Time
1 Nijolė Sabaitė   Soviet Union 4 2:01.50
2 Abby Hoffman   Canada 5 2:01.57
3 Maria Sykora   Austria 7 2:01.82
4 Gisela Ellenberger   West Germany 1 2:01.92
5 Maritta Politz   East Germany 3 2:02.40
6 Margaret Coomber   Great Britain 2 2:02.99
7 Emesia Chizunga   Malawi 6 2:19.22
- Malak El-Nasser   Syria 8 DNF

Heat four

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Rank Athlete Nation Lane Time
1 Ileana Silai   Romania 5 2:01.42
2 Annelise Damm Olesen   Denmark 3 2:01.77
3 Magdolna Kulcsár   Hungary 4 2:02.35
4 Patricia Cropper   Great Britain 8 2:03.55
5 Vasilena Amzina   Bulgaria 2 2:05.92
6 Marleen Verheuen   Belgium 7 2:09.13
7 Raissa Ruus   Soviet Union 1 2:11.18
8 Lee Chiu-hsia   Republic of China 6 2:11.81

Heat five

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Rank Athlete Nation Lane Time
1 Nina Morhunova   Soviet Union 6 2:02.64
2 Gunhild Hoffmeister   East Germany 7 2:03.15
3 Rosemary Stirling   Great Britain 1 2:03.64
4 Sue Haden   New Zealand 4 2:04.86
5 Chereno Maiyo   Kenya 5 2:04.86
6 Wendy Koenig   United States 3 2:08.71
7 Malika Hadky   Morocco 2 2:12.46

Semifinals

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Top four in each heat advanced to the final round.

Heat one

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Rank Athlete Nation Lane Time
1 Nijolė Sabaitė   Soviet Union 3 2:00.90
2 Gunhild Hoffmeister   East Germany 7 2:01.21
3 Abby Hoffman   Canada 4 2:01.37
4 Vera Nikolić   Yugoslavia 1 2:01.49
5 Sylvia Schenk   West Germany 2 2:01.50
6 Annelisa Damm Olesen   Denmark 5 2:04.19
7 Cheryl Peasley   Australia 8 2:04.56
- Magdolna Kulcsár   Hungary 6 DNS

Heat two

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Rank Athlete Nation Lane Time
1 Hildegard Falck   West Germany 5 2:01.41
2 Svetla Zlateva   Bulgaria 3 2:01.66
3 Ileana Silai   Romania 8 2:01.85
4 Rosemary Stirling   Great Britain 6 2:02.36
5 Madeline Manning   United States 2 2:02.39
6 Maria Sykora   Austria 4 2:02.44
7 Gisela Ellenberger   West Germany 7 2:02.97
8 Nina Morhunova   Soviet Union 1 2:04.93

Final

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Rank Athlete Nation Lane Time Notes
  Hildegard Falck   West Germany 1 1:58.55 OR
  Nijolė Sabaitė   Soviet Union 5 1:58.65
  Gunhild Hoffmeister   East Germany 6 1:59.19
4 Svetla Zlateva   Bulgaria 2 1:59.72
5 Vera Nikolić   Yugoslavia 8 1:59.98
6 Ileana Silai   Romania 3 2:00.04
7 Rosemary Stirling   Great Britain 4 2:00.15
8 Abby Hoffman   Canada 7 2:00.17

Key: OR = Olympic record; DNS = did not start; DNF = did not finish

References

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  1. ^ a b "Athletics at the 1972 Munich Summer Games: Women's 800 metres". sports-reference.com. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 20 October 2017.
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