Details: Category: 1992 Olympic Games Barcelona - (Athletics); Last Updated: 24 July 2016; Published: 23 March 2016; Hits: 212

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Host City: Barcelona, Spain

Format: Top five in each heat and next two fastest advanced to the final.

Date Started: August 5, 1992

Format: Top six in each heat and next six fastest advanced to the semi-finals.

Date Finished: August 8, 1992

(Competitors: 43; Countries: 31; Finalists: 12)

Venue(s): Montjuïc Olympic Stadium, Barcelona

Overview by IAAF

Boulmerka won the first semi-final in 4:03.81, and her predecessor as World Champion, Dorovskikh, won the second heat in 4:03.79, with Angela Chalmers (CAN) the fastest non-qualifier with 4:04.87. Rogachova set the pace in the final, passing through 400m in a swift 60.7, and continued leading until 1300m, at which point Boulmerka zipped past. The Algerian led by 3m into the finishing straight and won by 10m, as Rogachova slowed up in the last few metres, and was almost caught by Qu, who had fought Dorovskikh off with 25m to go.

Summary by Sports-reference.com

Algeria’s Hassiba Boulmerka had won the 1991 World Championships at this distance, but becoming a world-class runner had not been an easy task for her. A Muslim from Algeria, she was singled out by Islamic fundamentalists who considered it shameful for her to run with her “legs naked.” There were rumors of a possible assassination attempt in Barcelona if she ran. Supported by her parents she moved to Germany early in 1992 where she continued her training. The final was led out by Russian Lyudmila Rogachova with Boulmerka on her shoulder at 800 metres. They maintained those positions for the third lap, before Boulmerka pulled ahead just before the final turn. She held the lead to the finish for the gold medal, with Rogachova second. China’s Qu Yunxia placed third. In 1993 she would break the vaunted world record that had been set by Tatyana Kazankina in 1993. Trained by the Chinese martinet Ma Junren, who pushed his runners mercilessly at a high-altitude training camp, Qu and several other Chinese runners set startling world records at the 1993 Chinese National Championships. The marks were considered by many to be “too good.” It was known that Ma fed his runners an unusual diet of turtle soup extract, and an elixir containing products from caterpillars. But it was also rumored that he fed them other performance-enhancing agents as well. Most of those runners quickly disappeared from the world scene once drug testing came to China.

Records

These were the standing world and Olympic records (in minutes) prior to the 1992 Summer Olympics.

World Record	3:52.47	Tatyana Kazankina	Zürich (SUI)	August 13, 1980
Olympic Record	3:53.96	Paula Ivan	Seoul (KOR)	September 26, 1988

		Results

*1500 m*	Women	Final	8 August

Rank	Mark	Athlete	Country	NOC	Birth Date	Records
1	3.55.30	Hassiba Boulmerka	Algeria	ALG	10 Jul 68	AR
2	3.56.91	Lyudmila Rogachova	Russia	RUS	30 Oct 66
3	3.57.08	Qu Yunxia	China	CHN	4 Oct 72
4	3.57.92	Tatyana Dorovskikh	Ukraine	UKR	12 Aug 61
5	4.00.20	Liu Li	China	CHN	12 Mar 71
6	4.00.59	Mayte Zúñiga	Spain	ESP	28 Dec 64
7	4.01.91	Małgorzata Rydz	Poland	POL	18 Jan 67
8	4.02.03	Yekaterina Podkopayeva	Russia	RUS	11 Jun 52
9	4.02.60	Maria Mutola	Mozambique	MOZ	27 Oct 72	NR
10	4.03.42	PattiSue Plumer	United States	USA	27 Apr 62
11	4.06.44	Elena Fidatov	Romania	ROU	24 Jul 60
	DNF	Doina Melinte	Romania	ROU	27 Dec 56
*1500 m*	Women	Semifinal 1	6 August

Rank	Mark	Athlete	Country	NOC	Birth Date	Records
1	4.03.81	Hassiba Boulmerka	Algeria	ALG	10 Jul 68
2	4.03.85	Lyudmila Rogachova	Russia	RUS	30 Oct 66
3	4.04.20	Maria Mutola	Mozambique	MOZ	27 Oct 72	NR
4	4.04.35	Liu Li	China	CHN	12 Mar 71
5	4.04.55	Elena Fidatov	Romania	ROU	24 Jul 60
6	4.04.87	Angela Chalmers	Canada	CAN	6 Sep 63
7	4.05.46	Violeta Szekely	Romania	ROU	26 Mar 65
8	4.09.64	Letitia Vriesde	Suriname	SUR	5 Oct 64
9	4.11.36	Kirsty McDermott	Great Britain	GBR	6 Aug 62
10	4.14.30	Maria Akraka	Sweden	SWE	7 Jul 66
11	4.15.53	Anna Brzezińska	Poland	POL	9 Jan 71
12	4.21.55	Regina Jacobs	United States	USA	28 Aug 63
13	4.26.61	Marie-Pierre Duros	France	FRA	7 Jun 67
*1500 m*	Women	Semifinal 2	6 August

Rank	Mark	Athlete	Country	NOC	Birth Date	Records
1	4.03.79	Tatyana Dorovskikh	Ukraine	UKR	12 Aug 61
2	4.03.83	Małgorzata Rydz	Poland	POL	18 Jan 67
3	4.03.86	Qu Yunxia	China	CHN	4 Oct 72
4	4.03.93	Yekaterina Podkopayeva	Russia	RUS	11 Jun 52
5	4.04.00	Mayte Zúñiga	Spain	ESP	28 Dec 64
6	4.04.23	PattiSue Plumer	United States	USA	27 Apr 62
7	4.04.42	Doina Melinte	Romania	ROU	27 Dec 56
8	4.04.80	Paula Schnurr	Canada	CAN	15 Jan 64
9	4.05.54	Carla Sacramento	Portugal	POR	10 Dec 71
10	4.06.05	Fabia Trabaldo	Italy	ITA	5 Mar 72
11	4.06.24	Sonia O'Sullivan	Ireland	IRL	28 Nov 69
12	4.07.46	Theresia Kiesl	Austria	AUT	26 Oct 63
13	4.12.50	Debbie Bowker	Canada	CAN	16 Dec 58
*1500 m*	Women	Heat 1	5 August

Rank	Mark	Athlete	Country	NOC	Birth Date	Records
1	4.09.91	Hassiba Boulmerka	Algeria	ALG	10 Jul 68
2	4.09.94	Tatyana Dorovskikh	Ukraine	UKR	12 Aug 61
3	4.09.99	Paula Schnurr	Canada	CAN	15 Jan 64
4	4.10.00	Elena Fidatov	Romania	ROU	24 Jul 60
5	4.10.01	Carla Sacramento	Portugal	POR	10 Dec 71
6	4.10.08	Liu Li	China	CHN	12 Mar 71
7	4.10.14	Marie-Pierre Duros	France	FRA	7 Jun 67
8	4.15.16	Maxine Newman	Great Britain	GBR	15 Dec 70
9	4.15.64	Simone Meier	Switzerland	SUI	15 Nov 65
10	4.17.73	Susan Sirma	Kenya	KEN	26 May 66
11	4.22.36	Suzy Favor Hamilton	United States	USA	8 Aug 68
12	4.24.87	Laurence Niyonsaba	Rwanda	RWA	14 Jun 73
13	4.33.41	Bigna Samuel	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	VIN	11 Sep 65
14	4.39.96	Angelina Pitso	Lesotho	LES	25 May 75	NJR
15	5.10.52	Rosemary Turare	Papua New Guinea	PNG	6 Jun 64
*1500 m*	Women	Heat 2	5 August

Rank	Mark	Athlete	Country	NOC	Birth Date	Records
1	4.07.82	Mayte Zúñiga	Spain	ESP	28 Dec 64
2	4.08.58	Doina Melinte	Romania	ROU	27 Dec 56
3	4.09.47	Małgorzata Rydz	Poland	POL	18 Jan 67
4	4.09.54	Lyudmila Rogachova	Russia	RUS	30 Oct 66
5	4.10.63	Letitia Vriesde	Suriname	SUR	5 Oct 64
6	4.11.27	Debbie Bowker	Canada	CAN	16 Dec 58
7	4.13.87	Regina Jacobs	United States	USA	28 Aug 63
8	4.26.22	Dhammika Menike	Sri Lanka	SRI	3 Feb 70
9	4.33.41	Carol Walsh	Malta	MLT	24 Oct 62
10	5.06.31	Rosalie Gangue	Chad	CHA	31 May 75
	DNF	Fabia Trabaldo	Italy	ITA	5 Mar 72
	DNF	Ellen Kießling	Germany	GER	17 Feb 68
	DNF	Maria Akraka	Sweden	SWE	7 Jul 66
	DQ	Ann Griffiths	Great Britain	GBR	20 Aug 65
*1500 m*	Women	Heat 3	5 August

Rank	Mark	Athlete	Country	NOC	Birth Date	Records
1	4.07.40	Qu Yunxia	China	CHN	4 Oct 72
2	4.07.55	Yekaterina Podkopayeva	Russia	RUS	11 Jun 52
3	4.07.59	Maria Mutola	Mozambique	MOZ	27 Oct 72
4	4.07.60	Violeta Szekely	Romania	ROU	26 Mar 65
5	4.07.70	Sonia O'Sullivan	Ireland	IRL	28 Nov 69
6	4.07.75	Angela Chalmers	Canada	CAN	6 Sep 63
7	4.07.81	Theresia Kiesl	Austria	AUT	26 Oct 63
8	4.08.30	Kirsty McDermott	Great Britain	GBR	6 Aug 62
9	4.08.35	Anna Brzezińska	Poland	POL	9 Jan 71
10	4.09.47	PattiSue Plumer	United States	USA	27 Apr 62
11	4.18.09	Gete Urge	Ethiopia	ETH	30 Aug 70
12	4.18.81	Khin Khin Htwe	Myanmar	MYA	29 Nov 67
13	4.33.57	Brigitte Nganaye	Central African Republic	CAF	28 Oct 73
14	4.33.66	Ana Isabel Elias	Angola	ANG	17 Sep 65