Athletics at the 1972 Summer Olympics – Women's 400 metres explained

Event:	Women's 400 metres
Games:	1972 Summer
Venue:	Olympic Stadium, Munich, West Germany
Date:	2 September 1972 & 7 September 1972
Competitors:	49
Nations:	29
Longnames:	yes
Win Value:	51.08
Gold:	Monika Zehrt
Goldnoc:	GDR
Silver:	Rita Wilden
Silvernoc:	FRG
Bronze:	Kathy Hammond
Bronzenoc:	USA
Prev:	1968
Next:	1976

These are the official results of the Women's 400 metres event at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich. The competition was held on 2 & 7 of September.^[1] The favorite coming into the Olympics was Monika Zehrt of East Germany who equaled the world record in the previous July. The other world record holder was Marilyn Neufville of Jamaica, who was also favored to win, but was injured and unable to compete. This left the field open to challenge the world record holder for the top prize.

Heats

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

Heat 1

Rank	Lane	Time	Notes
1	7	51.94	OR
2	4	51.97
3	1	52.05
4	2	52.85
5	3	53.60
6	5	54.52
7	6	56.35

Heat 2

Rank	Lane	Time
1	1	53.45
2	7	53.67
3	3	53.81
4	2	53.81
5	4	53.85
6	5	57.36
-	6	DNS

Heat 3

Rank	Lane	Time
1	3	52.49
2	5	52.85
3	2	53.16
4	4	53.38
5	1	54.43
6	7	54.46
7	6	55.33

Heat 4

Rank	Lane	Time
1	4	52.69
2	7	52.75
3	2	53.20
4	5	53.70
5	3	54.20
6	6	55.72
7	1	57.91

Heat 5

Rank	Lane	Time
1	1	52.38
2	6	52.79
3	5	53.41
4	4	53.48
5	2	53.98
6	3	54.83
7	7	1:05.18

Heat 6

Rank	Lane	Time
1	5	52.89
2	6	52.99
3	2	53.25
4	7	53.62
5	8	54.13
6	3	54.59
7	1	56.33
8	4	57.74

Heat 7

Rank	Lane	Time
1	7	52.80
2	5	52.82
3	6	53.08
4	4	53.31
5	3	53.92
6	1	54.65
7	2	57.71

Quarterfinals

The top four runners in each heat advanced to the semifinal round.

Quarterfinal 1

Rank	Lane	Time
1	5	51.96
2	3	51.97
3	1	52.30
4	8	52.45
5	6	52.82
6	7	53.01
7	2	53.22
-	4	DNS

Quarterfinal 2

Rank	Lane	Time
1	8	52.13
2	2	52.33
3	7	52.68
4	1	53.01
5	3	53.39
6	6	53.50
7	5	53.54
8	4	54.58

Quarterfinal 3

Rank	Lane	Time	Notes
1	2	51.71	OR
2	8	51.91
3	6	52.02
4	5	52.44
5	4	52.62
6	1	52.66
7	7	53.42
8	3	53.78

Quarterfinal 4

Rank	Lane	Time
1	1	52.33
2	3	52.53
3	7	52.93
4	8	52.96
5	2	53.29
6	5	53.60
7	6	53.87
8	4	54.39

Semifinals

Top four in each heat advanced to the final round.

Semifinal 1

Rank	Lane	Time	Notes
1	4	51.68	OR
2	8	51.73
3	5	51.90
4	1	51.92
5	6	52.15
6	7	52.23
7	2	52.91
-	3	DNF

Semifinal 2

Rank	Lane	Time	Notes
1	5	51.47	OR
2	3	51.76
3	8	51.90
4	6	51.91
5	2	51.93
6	4	52.18
7	7	52.29
8	1	53.02

Final

Rank	Lane	Time	Notes
	7	51.08	OR
	4	51.21
	5	51.64
4	6	51.86
5	3	51.96
6	8	51.99
7	1	52.19
8	2	52.39

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

External links

Official report

Notes and References

Web site: Athletics at the 1972 Munich Summer Games: Women's 400 metres . https://web.archive.org/web/20200417175002/https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/summer/1972/ATH/womens-400-metres.html . dead . 17 April 2020 . 1 August 2017 . sports-reference.com.