2015 World Championships in Athletics – Women's 200 metres explained

Event:	Women's 200 metres
Competition:	2015 World Championships
Venue:	Beijing National Stadium
Dates:	26 August (heats) 27 August (semifinals) 28 August (final)
Competitors:	49
Nations:	34
Win Value:	21.63
Gold:	Dafne Schippers
Goldnoc:	NED
Silver:	Elaine Thompson
Silvernoc:	JAM
Bronze:	Veronica Campbell-Brown
Bronzenoc:	JAM
Prev:	2013
Next:	2017

The women's 200 metres at the 2015 World Championships in Athletics is scheduled to be held at the Beijing National Stadium on 26, 27 and 28 August.^[1]

Summary

Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce of Jamaica entered the competition as defending champion but after winning the 100 metres, decided against running here.^[2] Reigning Olympic champion, Allyson Felix won a bye to compete by virtue of winning the 2014 IAAF Diamond League, but passed in order to focus on the 400 metres which would hold its final less than an hour before the semi-final round. 2013 silver medalist Murielle Ahouré did not return, and 2013 bronze medalist Blessing Okagbare did not start in the heats.

In the finals, two time Olympic Champion and 2011 World Champion Veronica Campbell-Brown relegated to lane 2 after finishing 7th in the semis, was the leader out of the blocks with Dina Asher-Smith and Jeneba Tarmoh also getting good starts. Elaine Thompson was last out of the blocks but rocketed around the turn to be the second to hit the straightaway behind "VCB." Candyce McGrone was about even with Asher-Smith and Dafne Schippers behind them with less than 90 metres to the finish. Thompson continued her speed to the front as Schippers let out her long strides to eat up territory. McGrone and Campbell-Brown were in the battle for bronze, Schippers looking too far back to catch Thompson but gaining with every stride. And Schippers caught her with 5 metres to spare, continuing on to the win. Campbell-Brown held off McGrone for bronze.^[3]

Schippers time of 21.63 made her the #3 performer of all time, Thompson at 21.66 became #5. Neither of them had been on the list prior to this race. It was a .40 improvement of her personal best for Schippers and a .44 improvement for Thompson. Schippers took down Marita Koch's 36-year-old, drug tainted European record and broke the 28 year old Championship Record held by East Germany's Silke Gladisch Moeller. Both runners were faster than Allyson Felix or Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce have ever run. Dina Asher-Smith's 22.07 in fifth place became the new British record and the fastest performance by a teenager, though cannot surpass Felix's junior world record because Asher Smith would turn 20 before the end of the calendar year.^[4]

Records

Prior to the competition, the records were as follows:^[5]

The following records were established during the competition:
World record	21.34	Seoul, South Korea	29 September 1988
Championship record	21.74	Rome, Italy	3 September 1987
World leading	21.98	Doha, Qatar	15 May 2015
African record	22.07	Zürich, Switzerland	14 August 1996
Asian record	22.01	Shanghai, China	22 October 1997
NACAC record	21.34	Seoul, South Korea	29 September 1988
South American record	22.48	São Paulo, Brazil	6 August 2011
European record	21.71	Karl-Marx-Stadt, East Germany	10 June 1979
		Potsdam, East Germany	21 July 1984
		Jena, East Germany	29 June 1986
		Stuttgart, West Germany	29 August 1986
Oceanian record	22.23	Stuttgart, Germany	13 July 1997
Championship record	21.63	Beijing, China	28 August 2015
World leading
European record

Schedule

Date	Time	Round
26 August 2015	19:15	Heats
27 August 2015	19:35	Semifinals
28 August 2015	21:00	Final

Results

KEY:	bgcolor=ccffcc align=center	Q	Qualified	bgcolor=ddffdd align=center	q	Fastest non-qualifiers	NR	National record	PB	Personal best	SB	Seasonal best

Heats

Qualification: Best 3 (Q) and next 3 fastest (q) qualify for the next round.^[6]

Rank	Heat	Time	Notes
1	7	22.22	,
2	1	22.45
3	7	22.52	,
4	7	22.54	,
5	6	22.58
6	2	22.73	,
7	4	22.78
8	3	22.79
8	5	22.79
10	4	22.85	,
11	5	22.89
12	4	22.90
13	1	22.92
13	1	22.92
15	2	22.95
15	7	22.95
17	3	22.99	,
18	6	23.01
19	3	23.03
20	4	23.05	,
21	2	23.09
22	6	23.09
23	5	23.10
24	3	23.15
25	4	23.16
26	2	23.18
27	6	23.21
28	5	23.22
28	3	23.22
30	2	23.25
30	2	23.25
32	7	23.28
32	3	23.28
34	1	23.30
34	5	23.30
34	2	23.30
37	7	23.32
38	1	23.33
39	1	23.34
40	7	23.35
41	6	23.39
42	6	23.44
43	5	23.45
44	1	23.47
45	5	23.57
46	6	23.63
47	4	23.83
48	5	24.22
49	7	25.77
	3
	4

Semifinals

Qualification: First 2 in each heat (Q) and the next 2 fastest (q) advanced to the final.^[7]

Rank	Heat	Time	Notes
1	3	22.12	,
2	1	22.13
3	1	22.26
4	3	22.30
5	1	22.32	,
6	2	22.36
7	3	22.47	,
8	2	22.53
9	2	22.56
10	1	22.64
11	2	22.75
12	1	22.77
13	1	22.87
13	2	22.87
13	3	22.87
16	3	22.92
17	2	23.02
18	1	23.03
19	1	23.04
19	3	23.04
21	2	23.07
21	3	23.07
23	3	23.28
24	2	23.34

Final

The final was held at 21:00.^[8]

Rank	Lane	Time	Notes
	6	21.63	,,
	5	21.66
	2	21.97
4	7	22.01
5	4	22.07
6	8	22.31
7	3	22.41
8	9	22.50

Notes and References

Web site: Beijing 2015: Timetable . https://web.archive.org/web/20141201205133/http://www.iaafbeijing2015.com/special/iaaf_sch_en/ . dead . 1 December 2014 . 10 August 2015 . 10 August 2015 . Beijing 2015 .
http://www.iaaf.org/news/news/world-championships-2015-jamaican-team Bolt and Fraser-Pryce front Jamaica's team for IAAF World Championships, Beijing 2015
Web site: Dafne Schippers takes 200m world gold but Dina Asher-Smith misses medal. 28 August 2015. Guardian. 1 September 2015.
Web site: REPORT: WOMEN'S 200M FINAL – IAAF WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS, BEIJING 2015. 28 August 2015. iaaf.org. 1 September 2015.
Web site: Records & Lists – 200 meters. IAAF. 14 August 2015.
http://media.aws.iaaf.org/competitiondocuments/pdf/4875/AT-200-W-h----.RS4.pdf?v=250162574 Heats results
http://media.aws.iaaf.org/competitiondocuments/pdf/4875/AT-200-W-sf----.RS4.pdf?v=1181539030 Semifinals results
Web site: Final results . 28 August 2015 . https://web.archive.org/web/20181005233920/http://media.aws.iaaf.org/competitiondocuments/pdf/4875/AT-200-W-f----.RS6.pdf . 5 October 2018 . dead .