The women's

800 metres The 800 metres, or 800 meters (American and British English spelling differences#-re.2C -er, US spelling), is a common track running event. It is the shortest commonly run middle-distance running event. The 800 metres is run over two laps of a ...

at the

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and officially branded as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes fro ...

took place on 15–18 August at the

Beijing National Stadium The National Stadium (), the Bird's Nest (), is a stadium at Olympic Green in Chaoyang, Beijing, Chaoyang, Beijing, China. The National Stadium, covering an area of 204,000 square meters with an 80,000 person capacity (91,000 with temporary ...

. The qualifying standards were 2:00.00 (A standard) and 2:01.30 (B standard).

Vanja Perišić Vanja Perišić (born July 5, 1985, in Split) is a Croatian middle distance runner, who specialized in the 800 metres. Perisic represented Croatia at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, where she competed for the women's 800 metres. She ran in ...

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

was later disqualified for failing an in-competition drugs test.IAAF Newsletter Edition 112

IAAF World Athletics, formerly known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation and International Association of Athletics Federations and formerly abbreviated as the IAAF, is the international sports governing body, governing body for the sport ...

(2010-04-27). Retrieved on 2010-04-27. This would be the last Olympic appearance by

Maria Mutola Maria de Lurdes Mutola ( ; born 27 October 1972) is a retired Mozambican female track and field who specialised in the 800 metres running event. She is only the fourth female track and field athlete to compete at six Olympic Games. She is a th ...

, a string which started with her as a 15 year old in the 1988 Olympics, a perennial finalist since 1992. In the final, both Kenyan athletes went to the front, with World Champion Janeth Jepkosgei taking the front and teenager Pamela Jelimo following. Coming out of the break, Kenia Sinclair in lane 3 squeezed quickly into lane 1, shutting the door on Mutola. Just before the bell, Jelimo passed Jepkosgei and set off on her own. Jepkosgei gave chase but the gap just continued to widen all the way to the finish. Jelimo and Jepkosgei never saw a challenge to their gold and silver, behind them Sinclair, then Mutola gave an ever futile chase. From almost the back of the pack, Hasna Benhassi moved forward through the turn. Coming off the turn, Mutola was making her move on Sinclair and Benhassi was making her move on Mutola, the three athletes lined up shoulder to shoulder. Benhassi had the speed while the other two struggled. After being passed by Benhassi, Tatiana Andrianova followed her around the slowing athletes. While Andrianova was faster down the straightaway, she couldn't make up enough ground, Benhassi finishing with bronze after taking silver in the previous three major championships.

Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world record, Olympic record, and world leading time were as follows: No new world or Olympic records were set for this event.

Results

Round 1

Qualification: First 3 in each heat(Q) and the next 6 fastest(q) advance to the

semifinals A single-elimination knockout, or sudden-death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of a match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final match-up, w ...

Semifinals

Final

Splits

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Athletics at the 2008 Summer Olympics - Women's 800 metres Athletics at the 2008 Summer Olympics 800 metres at the Olympics 2008 in women's athletics Women's events at the 2008 Summer Olympics