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

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.

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

Summary

In the final, running in lane 1, Lillian Board went out fast, making up the stagger on Aurelia Pentón in lane 2. In lane 4, Jarvis Scott did the same to Colette Besson in lane 5 who was passing Mirna van der Hoeven-Jansen in 6. On the backstretch, Scott opened up a clear lead on the field. Through the final turn, Natalya Pechonkina in lane 8 started to make headway against Scott's lead, with Board sandwiching the challenge from the inside. Coming off the turn, Board attacked and took the lead, Besson was still more than two metres behind Scott, but the rush was on. Besson shot past Scott and gained on Board with every step. After her early exuberance, Scott had no answer. Besson passed Board 10 metres before the line with Pechonkina taking bronze well ahead of Janet Simpson.

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	Colette Besson	France	53.1	Q
2	Jarvis Scott	United States	53.5	Q
3	Helga Henning	West Germany	53.5	Q
4	Joan Fisher	Canada	54.6	Q
5	Enriqueta Basilio	Mexico	55.6
6	Joyce Bennett	Australia	56.5

Heat 2

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Aurelia Pentón	Cuba	52.8	Q
2	Lillian Board	Great Britain	52.9	Q
3	Ingrīda Verbele	Soviet Union	54.0	Q
4	Una Morris	Jamaica	54.1	Q
5	Anne Covell	Canada	54.3
6	Anna Chmelková	Czechoslovakia	54.9
7	Antónia Munkácsi	Hungary	55.6
8	Jean Robotham	Costa Rica	58.2

Heat 3

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Mirna van der Hoeven-Jansen	Netherlands	53.1	Q
2	Esther Stroy	United States	53.5	Q
3	Janet Simpson	Great Britain	53.6	Q
4	Monique Noirot	France	53.6	Q
5	Tekla Chemabwai	Kenya	54.0
6	Sandra Brown	Australia	55.4
7	Hana Shezifi	Israel	56.3

Heat 4

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Natalya Pechonkina	Soviet Union	53.7	Q
2	Mary Green	Great Britain	53.9	Q
3	Karin Wallgren	Sweden	54.2	Q
4	Lois Anne Drinkwater	United States	54.5	Q
5	Donata Govoni	Italy	54.7
6	Eeva Haimi	Finland	55.0
7	Josefa Vicent	Uruguay	56.3
8	Olajumoke Bodunrin	Nigeria	57.0

Semifinals

Semifinal 1

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Helga Henning	West Germany	53.3	Q
2	Colette Besson	France	53.6	Q
3	Janet Simpson	Great Britain	54.0	Q
4	Aurelia Pentón	Cuba	54.0	Q
5	Esther Stroy	United States	54.3
6	Una Morris	Jamaica	54.6
7	Ingrīda Verbele	Soviet Union	54.6
8	Joan Fisher	Canada	55.2

Semifinal 2

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Lillian Board	Great Britain	52.5	Q
2	Mirna van der Hoeven-Jansen	Netherlands	52.6	Q
3	Natalya Pechonkina	Soviet Union	52.8	Q
4	Jarvis Scott	United States	53.2	Q
5	Mary Green	Great Britain	53.6
6	Karin Wallgren	Sweden	53.9
7	Monique Noirot	France	54.2
8	Lois Drinkwater	United States	57.3

Final

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
	Colette Besson	France	52.0
	Lillian Board	Great Britain	52.1
	Natalya Pechonkina	Soviet Union	52.2
4	Janet Simpson	Great Britain	52.5
5	Aurelia Pentón	Cuba	52.7
6	Jarvis Scott	United States	52.7
7	Helga Henning	West Germany	52.8
8	Mirna van der Hoeven-Jansen	Netherlands	53.0

External links

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