Athletics at the 2016 Summer Olympics – Women's 800 metres

Women's 800 metres at the Games of the XXXI Olympiad
Interior view of the Estádio Olímpico João Havelange, where the Women's 800m took place.
Venue	Olympic Stadium
Dates	17 August 2016 (heats) 18 August 2016 (semifinals) 20August 2016 (final)
Winning time	1:55.28 NR
Medalists
Caster Semenya   South Africa   Francine Niyonsaba   Burundi   Margaret Wambui   Kenya

Athletics at the 2016 Summer Olympics
List of athletes
Qualification
Track events
100 m		men		women
200 m		men		women
400 m		men		women
800 m		men		women
1500 m		men		women
5000 m		men		women
10,000 m		men		women
100 m hurdles				women
110 m hurdles		men
400 m hurdles		men		women
3000 m steeplechase		men		women
4 × 100 m relay		men		women
4 × 400 m relay		men		women
Road events
Marathon		men		women
20 km walk		men		women
50 km walk		men
Field events
Long jump		men		women
Triple jump		men		women
High jump		men		women
Pole vault		men		women
Shot put		men		women
Discus throw		men		women
Javelin throw		men		women
Hammer throw		men		women
Combined events
Heptathlon				women
Decathlon		men

The women's 800 metres event at the 2016 Summer Olympics took place between 17–20 August at the Olympic Stadium.^[1]

Summary

As the final started, Caster Semenya running in lane 3 gained a slight edge on the turn, deceptive as Margaret Wambui was the slowest around the turn. Francine Niyonsaba converged from lane 5 and the two assumed the lead down the backstretch. Semenya assumed the curb as they began the turn, Niyonsaba on her outside shoulder with Maryna Arzamasava behind Niyonsaba, Melissa Bishop and Lynsey Sharp stacking up behind Semenya. In the second 200, Margaret Wambui moved to the outside of lane 2 and ran up to Arzamasava's shoulder. The first lap was an honest 57.59. Midway through the penultimate turn, Niyonsaba edged in front of Semenya, the other runners collapsing into lane 1 rather than following her around the now open outside. Down the backstretch, Niyonsaba opened a 2 metre lead, with Bishop cuing up tight behind Semenya, with Arzamasava boxing her to the outside, while Arzamasava was being boxed by a faster moving Wambui. Kicker Joanna Jóźwik was trailing the field eight metres back of Niyonsaba. After the final turn had started, Semenya drifted to the outside and put it in gear, moving from 2 metres behind Niyonsaba to 2 metres in front. During the home stretch she just extended her lead to an 8 metre victory. Still in second, Niyonsaba had a 2 metre gap on Bishop with Wambui on her outside. Down the homestretch Niyonsaba also extended her gap to about four metres. Wambui down a metre on the outside of Bishop, couldn't make any progress to gain any group until the last 40 metres, when she finally pulled aside and then past for the bronze medal by a metre.

For Semenya, her 1:55.28 was a new South African National Record, a .05 improvement over the mark she set a month earlier at Herculis. For Bishop it was also a Canadian National Record, improving upon the mark she set the same day as Semenya in Edmonton. Semenya becomes the fifth woman to win two medals in the Women's Olympic 800. After the expected disqualification of Mariya Savinova from 2012 is completed, she will become the first two time gold medalist.

The medals were presented by Barbara Kendall, IOC member, South Africa and Hamad Kalkaba Malboum, Vice President of the IAAF.

Competition format

The women's 800m competition consisted of heats (Round 1), semifinals and a final. Twenty-four athletes advanced from the heats to the semifinal round. The top three competitors from each of the six heats qualified for the semifinals along with the six fastest losers. A total of eight competitors qualified for the final from the semifinals. In the three semifinal races, the first two from each semifinal advanced to the final along with the two fastest losers.

Records

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

World record	Jarmila Kratochvílová (TCH)	1:53.28	Munich, West Germany	26 July 1983
Olympic record	Nadezhda Olizarenko (URS)	1:53.43	Moscow, Soviet Union	27 July 1980
2016 World leading	Caster Semenya (RSA)	1:55.33	Fontvieille, Monaco	15 July 2016

The following national records were established during the competition:

Country	Athlete	Round	Time	Notes
Central African Republic	Elisabeth Mandaba (CAF)	Heats	2:11.70
South Africa	Caster Semenya (RSA)	Final	1:55.28
Canada	Melissa Bishop (CAN)	Final	1:57.02

Schedule

All times are Brasilia Time (UTC-3)

Results

Heats

Progression rules: First 2 in each heat (Q) and the next 8 fastest (q) advance to the Semifinals

Heat 1

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	4	Lynsey Sharp	Great Britain	2:00.83	Q
2	1	Amela Terzić	Serbia	2:00.99	Q, SB
3	6	Sahily Diago	Cuba	2:01.38
4	8	Angela Petty	New Zealand	2:02.40
5	7	Justine Fedronic	France	2:02.73
6	2	Olha Lyakhova	Ukraine	2:03.02
7	3	Florina Pierdevară	Romania	2:03.32
8	5	Ciara Everard	Ireland	2:07.91

Heat 2

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	4	Caster Semenya	South Africa	1:59.31	Q
2	8	Ajee' Wilson	United States	1:59.44	Q, SB
3	5	Shelayna Oskan-Clarke	Great Britain	1:59.67	q
4	3	Wang Chunyu	China	1:59.93	q PB
5	1	Margarita Mukasheva	Kazakhstan	2:00.97
6	2	Claudia Bobocea	Romania	2:03.75
7	7a	Rose Nathike Lokonyen	Refugee Olympic Team	2:16.64
8	7b	Houleye Ba	Mauritania	2:43.52
–	6	Rababe Arafi	Morocco	N/A	DNF

Heat 3

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	2	Selina Büchel	Switzerland	1:59.00	Q, SB
2	6	Margaret Wambui	Kenya	1:59.66	Q
3	4	Nataliya Pryshchepa	Ukraine	1:59.80	q
4	7	Gudaf Tsegay	Ethiopia	2:00.13
5	5	Sifan Hassan	Netherlands	2:00.27	SB
6	3	Tintu Lukka	India	2:00.58	SB
7	8	Selma Kajan	Australia	2:05.20
8	1	Tsepang Sello	Lesotho	2:10.22

Heat 4

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	3	Melissa Bishop	Canada	1:58.38	Q
2	4	Maryna Arzamasava	Belarus	1:58.44	Q, SB
3	5	Habitam Alemu	Ethiopia	1:58.99	q, PB
4	7	Noélie Yarigo	Benin	1:59.12	q
5	2	Halimah Nakaayi	Uganda	1:59.78	q, PB
6	8	Aníta Hinriksdóttir	Iceland	2:00.14
7	1	Christina Hering	Germany	2:01.04
8	6	Fatma El Sharnouby	Egypt	2:21.24

Heat 5

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	3	Eunice Jepkoech Sum	Kenya	1:59.83	Q
2	2	Nataliia Lupu	Ukraine	1:59.91	Q
3	7	Kate Grace	United States	1:59.96	q
4	8	Renée Eykens	Belgium	2:00.00	q, PB
5	1	Tigist Assefa	Ethiopia	2:00.21	SB
6	6	Winnie Nanyondo	Uganda	2:02.77
7	4	Amna Bakhit	Sudan	2:07.65
8	5	Swe Li Myint Myint	Myanmar	2:16.98

Heat 6

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	3	Angelika Cichocka	Poland	2:00.42	Q
2	1	Yusneysi Santiusti	Italy	2:00.45	Q
3	4	Rose Mary Almanza	Cuba	2:00.50
4	8	Malika Akkaoui	Morocco	2:00.52
5	7	Hedda Hynne	Norway	2:01.64
6	2	Déborah Rodríguez	Uruguay	2:01.86	SB
7	5	Simoya Campbell	Jamaica	2:02.07
8	6	Charline Mathias	Luxembourg	2:09.30

Heat 7

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	1	Joanna Jóźwik	Poland	2:01.58	Q
2	6	Winny Chebet	Kenya	2:01.65	Q
3	8	Esther Guerrero	Spain	2:01.85
4	4	Lisneidy Veitia	Cuba	2:02.10
5	2	Rénelle Lamote	France	2:02.19
6	5	Eglė Balčiūnaitė	Lithuania	2:02.98	SB
7	7	Kenia Sinclair	Jamaica	2:03.76
8	3	Flávia de Lima	Brazil	2:03.78	SB

Heat 8

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	4	Francine Niyonsaba	Burundi	1:59.84	Q
2	5	Lovisa Lindh	Sweden	2:00.04	Q, PB
3	8	Natoya Goule	Jamaica	2:00.49
4	3	Lucia Hrivnák Klocová	Slovakia	2:00.57	SB
5	7	Yuliya Karol	Belarus	2:01.09	PB
6	2	Chrishuna Williams	United States	2:01.19
7	1	Fabienne Kohlmann	Germany	2:05.36
8	6	Elisabeth Mandaba	Central African Republic	2:11.70	NR[2]

Semifinals

Progression rules: First 2 in each heat (Q) and the next 2 fastest (q) advance to the Final

Semifinal 1

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	3	Margaret Wambui	Kenya	1:59.21	Q
2	6	Francine Niyonsaba	Burundi	1:59.59	Q
3	7	Ajee' Wilson	United States	1:59.75
4	4	Nataliya Pryshchepa	Ukraine	1:59.95
5	1	Renée Eykens	Belgium	2:00.45
6	8	Halimah Nakaayi	Uganda	2:00.63
7	2	Yusneysi Santiusti	Italy	2:00.80
8	5	Angelika Cichocka	Poland	2:01.29

Semifinal 2

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	1	Joanna Jóźwik	Poland	1:58.93	Q, SB
2	4	Melissa Bishop	Canada	1:59.05	Q
3	5	Selina Büchel	Switzerland	1:59.35
4	2	Lovisa Lindh	Sweden	1:59.41	PB
5	7	Shelayna Oskan-Clarke	Great Britain	1:59.45	SB
6	6	Habitam Alemu	Ethiopia	2:00.07
7	3	Eunice Jepkoech Sum	Kenya	2:00.88
8	8	Nataliia Lupu	Ukraine	2:02.10

Semifinal 3

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	5	Caster Semenya	South Africa	1:58.15	Q
2	4	Lynsey Sharp	Great Britain	1:58.65	Q
3	6	Kate Grace	United States	1:58.79	q, PB
4	3	Maryna Arzamasava	Belarus	1:58.87	q
5	8	Noélie Yarigo	Benin	1:59.78
6	7	Winny Chebet	Kenya	2:01.90
7	2	Amela Terzić	Serbia	2:03.81
8	1	Wang Chunyu	China	2:04.05

Final

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
01 !	3	Caster Semenya	South Africa	1:55.28	NR
02 !	5	Francine Niyonsaba	Burundi	1:56.49
03 !	4	Margaret Wambui	Kenya	1:56.89	PB
4	6	Melissa Bishop	Canada	1:57.02	NR
5	2	Joanna Jóźwik	Poland	1:57.37	PB
6	7	Lynsey Sharp	Great Britain	1:57.69	PB
7	8	Maryna Arzamasava	Belarus	1:59.10
8	1	Kate Grace	United States	1:59.57

References