The women's marathon at the 2008 Summer Olympics took place on August 17 around an urban circuit specifically designed for the competition at Beijing, and finished in the Beijing National Stadium; it was, as of today, the last time in Summer Olympics history in which women's marathon route start and/or finish was located in the Olympic Stadium. The qualifying standards were 2:37.00 (A standard) and 2:42.00 (B standard). There were a total number of 82 competitors from 42 nations.
The winner was Constantina Diṭă-Tomescu of Romania who at one point took a lead of over a minute and maintained it ahead of the chasing pack all the way into the stadium. She completed the marathon in a time of 2:26:44. In second place was Catherine Ndereba of Kenya who completed the race in 2:27:06, closely followed by bronze medalist Zhou Chunxiu of China who finished in a time of 2:27:07.
World record holder Paula Radcliffe of Great Britain took part in the race despite injury problems that bothered her throughout the previous year. However, she did not feature for much of the race and had to pause and do some exercises to rid herself of cramps at one point. She then proceeded to finish the marathon in 23rd place in a time of 2:32:38.
Records Prior to this event, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows:
Schedule All times are China standard time (UTC+8) Date Time RoundSunday, 17 August 2008 07:30Final
Results Rank Athlete Country Result Notes Constantina Diță 2:26:44 SB Catherine Ndereba 2:27:06 Zhou Chunxiu 2:27:07 SB Zhu Xiaolin 2:27:16 SB Martha Komu 2:27:23 Mara Yamauchi 2:27:29 Irina Timofeyeva 2:27:31 Lidia Șimon 2:27:51 Souad Aït Salem 2:28:29 10 Salina Jebet Kosgei 2:29:28 11 Živilė Balčiūnaitė 2:29:33 12 Kim Kum-Ok 2:30:01 SB13 Yurika Nakamura 2:30:19 14 Anna Incerti 2:30:55 PB15 Dire Tune 2:31:16 16 Nina Rillstone 2:31:16 17 Bruna Genovese 2:31:31 18 Luminiţa Talpoş 2:31:41 19 Madaí Pérez 2:31:47 20 Christelle Daunay 2:31:48 21 Benita Johnson 2:32:06 22 Svetlana Zakharova 2:32:16 23 Paula Radcliffe 2:32:38 24 Monika Drybulska 2:32:39 SB25 Lee Eun-Jung 2:33:07 26 Liz Yelling 2:33:12 27 Blake Russell 2:33:13 28 Beata Naigambo 2:33:29 29 Vincenza Sicari 2:33:31 30 Dorota Gruca 2:33:32 31 Tetyana Filonyuk 2:33:35 32 Marisa Barros 2:34:08 33 Lisa Jane Weightman 2:34:16 34 Kirsten Melkevik Otterbu 2:34:35 35 Liza Hunter-Galvan 2:34:51 36 Jong Yong-Ok 2:34:52 37 Rasa Drazdauskaitė 2:35:09 38 Melanie Kraus 2:35:17 39 María Portillo 2:35:19 NR40 Helalia Johannes 2:35:22 41 Shujing Zhang 2:35:35 42 Lucia Kimani 2:35:47 NR43 Sandra Ruales 2:35:53 PB44 Kate Smyth 2:36:10 45 Yesenia Centeno 2:36:25 46 Ana Dias 2:36:25 47 Nebiat Habtemariam 2:37:03 48 Jo Bun-Hui 2:37:04 49 Tabitha Tsatsa 2:37:10 50 Bahar Doğan 2:37:12 PB51 Marily dos Santos 2:38:10 52 Susanne Hahn 2:38:31 53 Chae Eun-Hee 2:38:52 54 Alessandra Aguilar 2:39:29 55 Patricia Rétiz 2:39:34 56 Lee Sun-Young 2:43:23 57 Eva-Maria Gradwohl 2:44:24 58 Iuliia Andreeva 2:44:41 59 Sonia Calizaya 2:45:53 60 Eléni Dónta 2:46:44 61 Karina Pérez 2:47:02 62 Bertha Sánchez 2:47:02 63 Pauline Curley 2:47:16 64 María José Pueyo 2:48:01 65 Petra Teveli 2:48:32 66 Epiphanie Nyirabarame 2:49:32 67 Zuzana Šaríková 2:49:39 68 Gabriela Traña 2:53:45 69 Oksana Sklyarenko 2:55:39 Berhane Adere Gete Wami Inês Monteiro Valentina Delion Reiko Tosa Olivera Jevtic Galina Bogomolova Mariana Diaz Ximenez Beáta Rakonczai Mamorallo Tjoka Magdalena Lewy-Boulet Deena Kastor Nadia Ejjafini
References
External links Official list of participants, and their results sports-reference