| Host City: Seoul, South Korea |
Format: Top four in each heat and next four fastest advanced to the final. |
| Date Started: September 29, 1988 |
|
| Date Finished: October 1, 1988 |
|
| (Competitors: 28; Countries: 19; Finalists: 12) |
|
|
|
Venue(s): Olympic Stadium, Seoul Sports Complex, Seoul
|
| Overview by IAAF |
|
 |
| Samolenko, the World Champion, was favoured to win over Slaney and Ivan, and qualified comfortably in third place (4:07.11) in the first heat behind Melinte (4:06.87). Ivan won the other heat in 4:03.39 from Slaney (4:03.61). The Romanian went to the front in the final from the gun, with Slaney on her shoulder until midway in the second lap, when the powerfully- built Romanian began to build up a lead, which reached 8m at 800m. She increased her pace from 63.2 in the second lap to 62.5 in the third and her lead more than doubled to 25m, with Hahmann leading the pack from Cahill and Samolenko. Ivan eventually won by more than 40m, proportionally a larger margin than either of Flo-Jo’s wins. Baikauskaitė, with a last lap of 63.5 (as compared with Ivan’s 61.3) caught Samolenko on the line for the silver medal, with the next three within 5m. |
|
|
|
|
| Summary by Sports-reference.com |
|
|
|
| The favorites were Soviet Tatyana Samolenko, 1987 World Champion and America's Mary Decker-Slaney, 1983 World Champion. They qualified easily for the final, as did Romania's Paula Ivan. In the final, Ivan took the lead at the gun, and was never headed. She had an 8-metre lead at 800, dropping Decker-Slaney on the second lap, and she continued to increase her lead, winning by over 40 metres. Her time 3:53.96 was the second fastest ever run, but her winning margin of over six seconds has not been surpassed in any Olympic track race for women. |
Records
These were the standing world and Olympic records (in minutes) prior to the 1988 Summer Olympics.
The following Olympic record (in minutes) was set during this competition.
| Date | Athlete | Time | OR | WR |
|---|
| September 26, 1988 |
 Paula Ivan (ROM) |
3:53.96 |
OR |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Results |
|
|
|
|
|
|
The women's 1500 metres at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea had an entrylist of 28 competitors, with two qualifying heats (28) before the final (12) took place on Saturday October 1, 1988.
From the gun in the final, Paula Ivan wanted the lead. Mary Slaney and Ivan's teammate Doina Melinte didn't want to let her get away. The field behind her looked bunched but the 1:02.52 first lap showed she was serious. This was world record pace, rare for a championship race that usually breaks down into a strategic battle. After the first lap, a small gap began to open. Melinte was the last to maintain contact, perhaps having seen this strategy previously in domestic competition. The second lap was completed in 1:03.26, a ten-metre gap had opened, with Tetyana Samolenko edging past Melinte in chase. 2:52.66 at the bell and a fifteen-metre gap, Ivan began a last lap kick, trying to run the 60 second last lap to get the world record. Because of the acceleration, the third lap was the fastest of them all at 1:02.46. The battle was for the medals behind Ivan, Andrea Hahmann passing Samolenko, who had Christina Cahill on her shoulder with Lynn Williams in chase. Melinte faded back to Slaney but behind all of them, Laimutė Baikauskaitė was charging. Onto the home stretch the chase pack was tightening, some 30 metres behind Ivan. Baikauskaitė moved into lane 3 to find some running room. Ivan wasn't able to find a 60-second lap, 61.5 was enough to set the Olympic record out of sight with a dominant gold medal performance. Hahmann faded and Samolenko was leading down the stretch with Cahill in close pursuit. Making up ten metres on the final straight, Baikauskaitė passed Cahill and Hahmann in the final 15 metres and leaned past Samolenko at the line to take the |
|
| 1500 m |
Women |
|
|
Final |
1 October |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Rank |
Mark |
|
|
Athlete |
Country |
NOC |
Birth Date |
|
Records |
| 1 |
3.53.96 |
|
|
Paula Ivan |
Romania |
ROU |
20 Jul 63 |
|
NR |
| 2 |
4.00.24 |
|
|
Laima Baikauskaitė |
Soviet Union |
URS |
10 Jun 56 |
|
NR |
| 3 |
4.00.30 |
|
|
Tatyana Dorovskikh |
Soviet Union |
URS |
12 Aug 61 |
|
|
| 4 |
4.00.64 |
|
|
Christina Cahill |
Great Britain |
GBR |
25 Mar 57 |
|
|
| 5 |
4.00.86 |
|
|
Lynn Williams |
Canada |
CAN |
11 Jul 60 |
|
|
| 6 |
4.00.96 |
|
|
Andrea Lange |
East Germany |
GDR |
3 Jun 66 |
|
|
| 7 |
4.02.32 |
|
|
Shireen Bailey |
Great Britain |
GBR |
27 Sep 59 |
|
|
| 8 |
4.02.49 |
|
|
Mary Slaney |
United States |
USA |
4 Aug 58 |
|
|
| 9 |
4.02.89 |
|
|
Doina Melinte |
Romania |
ROU |
27 Dec 56 |
|
|
| 10 |
4.08.00 |
|
|
Fatima Aouam |
Morocco |
MAR |
16 Dec 59 |
|
|
| 11 |
4.10.25 |
|
|
Kim Gallagher |
United States |
USA |
11 Jun 64 |
|
|
| 12 |
4.17.95 |
|
|
Debbie Bowker |
Canada |
CAN |
16 Dec 58 |
|
|
| 1500 m |
Women |
|
|
Heat 1 |
29 September |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Rank |
Mark |
|
|
Athlete |
Country |
NOC |
Birth Date |
|
Records |
| 1 |
4.06.87 |
|
|
Doina Melinte |
Romania |
ROU |
27 Dec 56 |
|
|
| 2 |
4.07.08 |
|
|
Debbie Bowker |
Canada |
CAN |
16 Dec 58 |
|
|
| 3 |
4.07.11 |
|
|
Tatyana Dorovskikh |
Soviet Union |
URS |
12 Aug 61 |
|
|
| 4 |
4.07.22 |
|
|
Kim Gallagher |
United States |
USA |
11 Jun 64 |
|
|
| 5 |
4.07.40 |
|
|
Elly van Hulst |
Netherlands |
NED |
9 Jun 59 |
|
|
| 6 |
4.08.37 |
|
|
Kirsty McDermott |
Great Britain |
GBR |
6 Aug 62 |
|
|
| 7 |
4.08.59 |
|
|
Lyubov Gurina |
Soviet Union |
URS |
6 Aug 57 |
|
|
| 8 |
4.08.84 |
|
|
Angela Chalmers |
Canada |
CAN |
6 Sep 63 |
|
|
| 9 |
4.10.05 |
|
|
Vera Michallek |
West Germany |
FRG |
6 Nov 58 |
|
|
| 10 |
4.10.89 |
|
|
Cornelia Bürki |
Switzerland |
SUI |
3 Oct 53 |
|
|
| 11 |
4.20.92 |
|
|
Khin Khin Htwe |
Myanmar |
MYA |
29 Nov 67 |
|
|
| 12 |
4.26.05 |
|
|
Noh Hye-Soon |
South Korea |
KOR |
23 Mar 69 |
|
|
| 13 |
4.32.31 |
|
|
Daphrose Nyiramutuzo |
Rwanda |
RWA |
1 Sep 72 |
|
|
| 14 |
4.46.49 |
|
|
Polonie Avek |
Papua New Guinea |
PNG |
28 Jan 66 |
|
|
| 1500 m |
Women |
|
|
Heat 2 |
29 September |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Rank |
Mark |
|
|
Athlete |
Country |
NOC |
Birth Date |
|
Records |
| 1 |
4.03.33 |
|
|
Paula Ivan |
Romania |
ROU |
20 Jul 63 |
|
|
| 2 |
4.03.61 |
|
|
Mary Slaney |
United States |
USA |
4 Aug 58 |
|
|
| 3 |
4.03.65 |
|
|
Andrea Lange |
East Germany |
GDR |
3 Jun 66 |
|
|
| 4 |
4.04.20 |
|
|
Lynn Williams |
Canada |
CAN |
11 Jul 60 |
|
|
| 5 |
4.04.65 |
|
|
Shireen Bailey |
Great Britain |
GBR |
27 Sep 59 |
|
|
| 6 |
4.05.33 |
|
|
Christina Cahill |
Great Britain |
GBR |
25 Mar 57 |
|
|
| 7 |
4.05.74 |
|
|
Laima Baikauskaitė |
Soviet Union |
URS |
10 Jun 56 |
|
|
| 8 |
4.06.87 |
|
|
Fatima Aouam |
Morocco |
MAR |
16 Dec 59 |
|
|
| 9 |
4.08.33 |
|
|
Hassiba Boulmerka |
Algeria |
ALG |
10 Jul 68 |
|
|
| 10 |
4.10.13 |
|
|
Susan Sirma |
Kenya |
KEN |
26 May 66 |
|
|
| 11 |
4.18.09 |
|
|
Regina Jacobs |
United States |
USA |
28 Aug 63 |
|
|
| 12 |
4.19.58 |
|
|
Letitia Vriesde |
Suriname |
SUR |
5 Oct 64 |
|
|
| 13 |
4.39.73 |
|
|
Laverne Bryan |
Antigua and Barbuda |
ANT |
17 May 65 |
|
|
| 14 |
5.31.42 |
|
|
Rachael Thompson |
Great Britain |
GBR |
15 Sep 85 |
|
|
|
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
|
