Athletics at the 1968 Summer Olympics – Women's 400 metres

Women's 400 metres at the Games of the XIX Olympiad
Venue	Estadio Olímpico Universitario
Date	October 14–16
Competitors	29 from 22 nations
Winning time	52.0
Medalists
Colette Besson   France   Lillian Board   Great Britain   Natalya Pechonkina   Soviet Union

Athletics at the 1968 Summer Olympics
Track events
100 m		men		women
200 m		men		women
400 m		men		women
800 m		men		women
1500 m		men
5000 m		men
10,000 m		men
80 m hurdles				women
110 m hurdles		men
400 m hurdles		men
3000 m steeplechase		men
4×100 m relay		men		women
4×400 m relay		men
Road events
Marathon		men
20 km walk		men
50 km walk		men
Field events
Long jump		men		women
Triple jump		men
High jump		men		women
Pole vault		men
Shot put		men		women
Discus throw		men		women
Javelin throw		men		women
Hammer throw		men
Combined events
Pentathlon				women
Decathlon		men

The Women's 400 metres competition at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, Mexico was held at the University Olympic Stadium on October 14–16.

Competition format

The Women's 200m competition consisted of heats (Round 1), Semifinals and a Final. The four fastest competitors from each race in the heats qualified for the Semifinals. The four fastest competitors from each of the Semifinal races qualified for the final.

Records

Prior to the competition, the existing World and Olympic records were as follows.

World record	Shin Geum-Dan (PRK)	51.9	Pyongyang, North Korea	October 23, 1962
Olympic record	Betty Cuthbert (AUS)	52.0	Tokyo, Japan	October 17, 1964

Results

Round 1

Heat 1

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Besson, ColetteColette Besson	France	53.1	Q
2	Scott, JarvisJarvis Scott	United States	53.5	Q
3	Henning, HelgaHelga Henning	West Germany	53.5	Q
4	Fisher, JoanJoan Fisher	Canada	54.6	Q
5	Basilio, EnriquetaEnriqueta Basilio	Mexico	55.6
6	Bennett, JoyceJoyce Bennett	Australia	56.5

Heat 2

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Pentón, AureliaAurelia Pentón	Cuba	52.8	Q
2	Board, LillianLillian Board	Great Britain	52.9	Q
3	Verbele, IngrīdaIngrīda Verbele	Soviet Union	54.0	Q
4	Morris, UnaUna Morris	Jamaica	54.1	Q
5	Covell, AnneAnne Covell	Canada	54.3
6	Chmelková, AnnaAnna Chmelková	Czechoslovakia	54.9
7	Munkácsi, AntóniaAntónia Munkácsi	Hungary	55.6
8	Robotham, JeanJean Robotham	Costa Rica	58.2

Heat 3

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	van der Hoeven-Jansen, MirnaMirna van der Hoeven-Jansen	Netherlands	53.1	Q
2	Stroy, EstherEsther Stroy	United States	53.5	Q
3	Simpson, JanetJanet Simpson	Great Britain	53.6	Q
4	Noirot, MoniqueMonique Noirot	France	53.6	Q
5	Chemabwai, TeklaTekla Chemabwai	Kenya	54.0
6	Brown, SandraSandra Brown	Australia	55.4
7	Shezifi, HanaHana Shezifi	Israel	56.3

Heat 4

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Pechonkina, NatalyaNatalya Pechonkina	Soviet Union	53.7	Q
2	Green, MaryMary Green	Great Britain	53.9	Q
3	Wallgren-Lundgren, KarinKarin Wallgren-Lundgren	Sweden	54.2	Q
4	Drinkwater, LoisLois Drinkwater	United States	54.5	Q
5	Govoni, DonataDonata Govoni	Italy	54.7
6	Haimi, EevaEeva Haimi	Finland	55.0
7	Vicent, JosefaJosefa Vicent	Uruguay	56.3
8	Bodunrin, OlajumokeOlajumoke Bodunrin	Nigeria	57.0

Semi-Final

Heat 1

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Henning, HelgaHelga Henning	West Germany	53.3	Q
2	Besson, ColetteColette Besson	France	53.6	Q
3	Simpson, JanetJanet Simpson	Great Britain	54.0	Q
4	Pentón, AureliaAurelia Pentón	Cuba	54.0	Q
5	Stroy, EstherEsther Stroy	United States	54.3
6	Morris, UnaUna Morris	Jamaica	54.6
7	Verbele, IngrīdaIngrīda Verbele	Soviet Union	54.6
8	Fisher, JoanJoan Fisher	Canada	55.2

Heat 2

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Board, LillianLillian Board	Great Britain	52.5	Q
2	van der Hoeven-Jansen, MirnaMirna van der Hoeven-Jansen	Netherlands	52.6	Q
3	Pechonkina, NatalyaNatalya Pechonkina	Soviet Union	52.8	Q
4	Scott, JarvisJarvis Scott	United States	53.2	Q
5	Green, MaryMary Green	Great Britain	53.6
6	Wallgren-Lundgren, KarinKarin Wallgren-Lundgren	Sweden	53.9
7	Noirot, MoniqueMonique Noirot	France	54.2
8	Drinkwater, LoisLois Drinkwater	United States	57.3

Final

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
01 !	Besson, ColetteColette Besson	France	52.0
02 !	Board, LillianLillian Board	Great Britain	52.1
03 !	Pechonkina, NatalyaNatalya Pechonkina	Soviet Union	52.2
4	Simpson, JanetJanet Simpson	Great Britain	52.5
5	Pentón, AureliaAurelia Pentón	Cuba	52.7
6	Scott, JarvisJarvis Scott	United States	52.7
7	Henning, HelgaHelga Henning	West Germany	52.8
8	van der Hoeven-Jansen, MirnaMirna van der Hoeven-Jansen	Netherlands	53.0

References

• Official Olympic Report, la84foundation.org. Retrieved August 15, 2012.