Athletics at the 2004 Summer Olympics – Women's 20 kilometres walk

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Women's 20 kilometres walk
at the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad
Olympic Athletics.svg
Olympic Athletics
Venue Athens Olympic Stadium
Dates23 August
Competitors57 from 35 nations
Winning time1:29.12
Medalists
Gold medal icon.svg Athanasia Tsoumeleka Flag of Greece.svg  Greece
Silver medal icon.svg Olimpiada Ivanova Flag of Russia.svg  Russia
Bronze medal icon.svg Jane Saville Flag of Australia.svg  Australia
  2000
2008  

The women's 20 kilometres race walk at the 2004 Summer Olympics as part of the athletics program was held through the streets of Athens with the start and finish at the Athens Olympic Stadium on August 23. [1] [2]

The race had started with a strong, good-sized bunch of fifty-seven walkers keeping together through the field. As the group left the stadium falling apart, Russia's Olimpiada Ivanova took the front of the pack on the opening 2k laps, followed by several of the anticipated favorites, which included 2000 Olympic champion Wang Liping, the Australian sisters Jane and Natalie Saville, and the Greek duo Athina Papayianni and Athanasia Tsoumeleka.

By the half way mark, fourteen walkers were still in close contention with Ivanova maintaining the lead and Belarus' Ryta Turava staying beside her to shorten the gap. As the Belarusian began to lose contact, Ivanova steadily broke away from the group to own the race, until Jane Saville set the pace much faster to chase her on the succeeding lap. With just 2k left to go, home favorite Tsoumeleka zoomed past the two remaining chasers Ivanova and Saville on a late charge to quickly build up a seemingly insurmountable lead.

Entering the Olympic Stadium with a rapturous welcome from the partisan crowd, Tsoumeleka walked jubilantly into the final stretch to deliver the Greeks their first ever Olympic track and field gold medal at these Games. She finished the race in 1:29.12, just four seconds ahead of the eventual silver medalist Ivanova. [3] Meanwhile, Saville had finally erased her setback of being disqualified at the Sydney Olympics four years earlier to successfully claim the bronze, holding Turava off the podium to fourth. [4] [5]

Records

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

World recordFlag of the People's Republic of China.svg  Wang Yan  (CHN)1:26:22 Guangzhou, China 19 November 2001
Olympic recordFlag of the People's Republic of China.svg  Wang Liping  (CHN)1:29:05 Sydney, Australia 28 September 2000

No new records were set during the competition.

Qualification

The qualification period for athletics was 1 January 2003 to 9 August 2004. For the women's 20 kilometres race walk, each National Olympic Committee was permitted to enter up to three athletes that had run the race in 1:33:30 or faster during the qualification period. If an NOC had no athletes that qualified under that standard, one athlete that had run the race in 1:38:00 or faster could be entered.

Schedule

All times are Greece Standard Time (UTC+2)

DateTimeRound
Monday, 23 August 200409:00Final

Results

RankNameNationalityResultNotes
Gold medal icon.svg Athanasia Tsoumeleka Flag of Greece.svg  Greece 1:29.12PB
Silver medal icon.svg Olimpiada Ivanova Flag of Russia.svg  Russia 1:29.16
Bronze medal icon.svg Jane Saville Flag of Australia.svg  Australia 1:29.25
4 Ryta Turava Flag of Belarus (1995-2012).svg  Belarus 1:29:39
5 Melanie Seeger Flag of Germany.svg  Germany 1:29:52
6 Elisa Rigaudo Flag of Italy (2003-2006).svg  Italy 1:29:57
7 María Vasco Flag of Spain.svg  Spain 1:30:06
8 Wang Liping Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg  China 1:30:16
9 Elena Ginko Flag of Belarus (1995-2012).svg  Belarus 1:30:22
10 Athina Papayianni Flag of Greece.svg  Greece 1:30:37
11 Rossella Giordano Flag of Italy (2003-2006).svg  Italy 1:30:39
12 Kjersti Plätzer Flag of Norway.svg  Norway 1:30:49SB
13 Yuliya Voyevodina Flag of Russia.svg  Russia 1:31:02
14 Song Hongjuan Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg  China 1:31:27
15 Valentina Tsybulskaya Flag of Belarus (1995-2012).svg  Belarus 1:31:49
16 Sabine Zimmer Flag of Germany.svg  Germany 1:31:59
17 Yelena Nikolayeva Flag of Russia.svg  Russia 1:32:16
18 Elisabetta Perrone Flag of Italy (2003-2006).svg  Italy 1:32:21SB
19 Kristina Saltanovič Flag of Lithuania.svg  Lithuania 1:32:22
20 Susana Feitor Flag of Portugal.svg  Portugal 1:32:47
21 Sylwia Korzeniowska Flag of Poland.svg  Poland 1:33:06
22 Zuzana Maliková Flag of Slovakia.svg  Slovakia 1:33:17
23 Sonata Milušauskaitė Flag of Lithuania.svg  Lithuania 1:33:36
24 Barbora Dibelková Flag of the Czech Republic.svg  Czech Republic 1:33:37
25 Inês Henriques Flag of Portugal.svg  Portugal 1:33:53
26 Maribel Gonçalves Flag of Portugal.svg  Portugal 1:33:59
27 Norica Câmpean Flag of Romania.svg  Romania 1:34:30
28 Svetlana Tolstaya Flag of Kazakhstan (3-2).svg  Kazakhstan 1:34:43
29 Ana Maria Groza Flag of Romania.svg  Romania 1:34:56
30 Rocío Florido Flag of Spain.svg  Spain 1:35:32
31 Hristina Kokotou Flag of Greece.svg  Greece 1:35:43
32 Jiang Jing Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg  China 1:35:56
33 Yeliz Ay Flag of Turkey.svg  Turkey 1:36:02
34 Victoria Palacios Flag of Mexico.svg  Mexico 1:36:07
35 Yuan Yufang Flag of Malaysia.svg  Malaysia 1:36:34
36 Natalie Saville Flag of Australia.svg  Australia 1:36:54
37 Daniela Cîrlan Flag of Romania.svg  Romania 1:37:14
38 Cheryl Webb Flag of Australia.svg  Australia 1:37:40
39 Marie Polli Civil Ensign of Switzerland (Pantone).svg  Switzerland 1:37:53
40 Mayumi Kawasaki Flag of Japan.svg  Japan 1:37:56
41 Geovana Irusta Flag of Bolivia.svg  Bolivia 1:38:36
42 Vira Zozulya Flag of Ukraine.svg  Ukraine 1:38:45
43 Teresa Vaill Flag of the United States.svg  United States 1:38:47
44 Edina Füsti Flag of Hungary.svg  Hungary 1:39:45
45 Anita Liepiņa Flag of Latvia (3-2).svg  Latvia 1:39:54
46 Sandra Zapata Flag of Colombia.svg  Colombia 1:42:22
47 Nicolene Cronje Flag of South Africa.svg  South Africa 1:42:37
48 Alessandra Picagevicz Flag of Brazil.svg  Brazil 1:46:21
49 Teresita Collado Flag of Guatemala.svg  Guatemala 1:46:41
50 Yelena Kuznetsova Flag of Kazakhstan (3-2).svg  Kazakhstan 1:49:08
51 Yolene Raffin Flag of Mauritius.svg  Mauritius 1:49:28
52 Fumilay Fonseca Flag of Sao Tome and Principe.svg  São Tomé and Príncipe 2:04:54PB
Olive Loughnane Flag of Ireland (3-2).svg  Ireland DNF
Rosario Sánchez Flag of Mexico.svg  Mexico DNF
Nevena Mineva Flag of Bulgaria.svg  Bulgaria DNF
María Teresa Gargallo Flag of Spain.svg  Spain DSQ
Kim Mi-jung Flag of South Korea (1997-2011).svg  South Korea DSQ

References

  1. "IAAF Athens 2004: Women's 20km Race Walk Final". Athens 2004 . IAAF . Retrieved 17 October 2015.
  2. "Athletics at the 2004 Athens Summer Games: Women's 20 kilometres Walk". sports-reference.com. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 3 December 2017.
  3. Berlin, Peter (23 August 2004). "A hunter is hunted down in 800". The New York Times . Retrieved 18 October 2015.
  4. Arcoleo, Laura (23 August 2004). "Surprise Greek win – Women's 20km Race Walk Olympic report". IAAF . Retrieved 18 October 2015.
  5. "Greece wins walk gold". BBC Sport. 23 August 2004. Retrieved 18 October 2015.