The women's 400 metres at the 2004 Summer Olympics as part of the athletics program were held at the Athens Olympic Stadium from August 21 to 24. The winning margin was 0.14 seconds.

The first round had split a full roster of runners into eight heats with the first three gaining a direct qualification and then the next six fastest across all heats advancing to the semifinals. The top two runners in each of the three semifinal heats moved on directly to the final, and they are immediately joined by the next two fastest from any of the semifinals.

Coming into the final, the fastest qualifiers were Monique Hennagan and Natalya Antyukh challenging each other in their semi final, Tonique Williams-Darling racing DeeDee Trotter in theirs, with world champion Ana Guevara cruising her semi final just staying ahead of Christine Amertil. In the final, Hennagan again went for the lead with Amertil and Natalya Nazarova each taking their shot at her in the first 200, only to fade after. Starting slightly slower, Williams came on strongly on the backstretch, marked by Guevara around the second turn. Coming off the turn Guevara had Williams where she wanted her, and Sanya Richards about even with Hennigan a couple of steps behind, with Antyukh and Trotter another step behind. Less than 50 meters from the finish, Guevara moved into the lead, but Williams kicked it into a different gear and pulled away to finish with gold. On the inside, Trotter rocketed past Richards and was gaining on Hennagan. Hennagan tried to fight, long striding with a slowing cadence to the finish, losing ground to a fast closing Antyukh. Defeated, Guevara gave up the fight and glided across the finish line with silver. 3 meters back, Antyukh clearly beat a wilting Hennagan, who still managed to hold off the fast closing Trotter.

Records Prior to the competition, the existing World record, Olympic record, and world leading time 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 men's 400 metres, each National Olympic Committee was permitted to enter up to three athletes that had run the race in 51.50 seconds 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 52.30 seconds or faster could be entered.

Schedule All times are Eastern European Summer Time (UTC+3) Date Time RoundSaturday, 21 August 2004 09:50 Round 1Sunday, 22 August 2004 22:20 SemifinalsTuesday, 24 August 2004 22:50 Final

Results

Round 1 Qualification rule: The first three finishers in each heat (Q) plus the next six fastest overall runners (q) advanced to the semifinals.

Heat 1 Rank Lane Athlete Nation Time Notes18 Ana Guevara 50.93Q25 Lee McConnell 51.19Q34 Grażyna Prokopek 51.29Q, PB47 Fatou Bintou Fall 51.87q52 Hortense Bewouda 52.1166 Oksana Luneva 52.9473 Ruwida El-Hubti 1:03.57NR

Heat 2 Rank Lane Athlete Nation Time Notes14 Monique Hennagan 51.02Q28 Mariyana Dimitrova 51.29Q37 Kaltouma Nadjina 51.50Q43 Nadia Davy 52.0452 Maria Laura Almirão 52.1066 Kirsi Mykkänen 52.5375 Bo Fanfang 56.01

Heat 3 Rank Lane Athlete Nation Time Notes13 Natalya Nazarova 50.82Q27 Donna Fraser 51.19Q32 Hazel-Ann Regis 51.66Q45 Estie Wittstock 51.89q56 Amy Mbacké Thiam 52.4468 Amantle Montsho 53.77NR74 Zamira Amirova 54.43

Heat 4 Rank Lane Athlete Nation Time Notes17 Natalya Antyukh 50.54Q25 DeeDee Trotter 50.56Q36 Novlene Williams 50.59Q, PB43 Aliann Pompey 51.33q58 Egle Uljas 51.91q, NR62 Svetlana Bodritskaya 53.3574 Shifana Ali 1:00.92NR

Heat 5 Rank Lane Athlete Nation Time Notes18 Tonique Williams-Darling 51.20Q25 Sviatlana Usovich 51.37Q33 Antonina Yefremova 51.53Q42 Mireille Nguimgo 51.90q54 Allison Beckford 52.8567 Sandrine Thiébaud-Kangni 52.8776 Damayanthi Dharsha 54.58

Heat 6 Rank Lane Athlete Nation Time Notes12 Sanya Richards 50.11Q23 Christine Amertil 50.23Q, PB37 Christine Ohuruogu 50.50Q, PB48 Tiandra Ponteen 51.17q54 Geisa Coutinho 52.1865 Makelesi Bulikiobo 53.5876 Salamtou Hassane 1:03.28NR

Semifinals Qualification rule: The first two finishers in each heat (Q) plus the next two fastest overall runners (q) moved on to the final.

Semifinal 1 Rank Lane Athlete Nation Time Notes14 Ana Guevara 50.15Q23 Christine Amertil 50.17Q, PB35 Sanya Richards 50.54q41 Christine Ohuruogu 51.0052 Tiandra Ponteen 51.3366 Sviatlana Usovich 51.4277 Hazel-Ann Regis 51.4788 Egle Uljas 53.13

Semifinal 2 Rank Lane Athlete Nation Time Notes14 Tonique Williams-Darling 50.00Q25 DeeDee Trotter 50.14Q, PB33 Natalya Nazarova 50.63q41 Fatou Bintou Fall 51.2158 Kaltouma Nadjina 51.5762 Estie Wittstock 51.7776 Donna Fraser 51.9487 Grażyna Prokopek 51.96

Semifinal 3 Rank Lane Athlete Nation Time Notes15 Monique Hennagan 49.88Q24 Natalya Antyukh 50.04Q31 Novlene Williams 50.8546 Mariyana Dimitrova 51.20PB57 Aliann Pompey 51.6162 Antonina Yefremova 51.9078 Mireille Nguimgo 52.2183 Lee McConnell 52.63

Final

Rank Lane Athlete Nation Time Notes4 Tonique Williams-Darling 49.423 Ana Guevara 49.56SB6 Natalya Antyukh 49.8945 Monique Hennagan 49.9751 DeeDee Trotter 50.00PB62 Sanya Richards 50.1978 Christine Amertil 50.3787 Natalya Nazarova 50.65

References

External links IAAF Athens 2004 Olympic Coverage