The women's 200 metres sprint event at the 1960 Olympic Games took place between September 3 and September 5. The winning margin was 0.45 seconds.

Results

Heats

Held on September 3 from 3pm

The top two runners in each of the six heats (blue), plus the next two fastest (pink) advanced to the semifinal round.

Heat one Rank Name Nationality Time Notes 1 Giuseppina Leone 23.90 2 Lucinda Williams 24.10 3 Hannelore Raepke 24.32 4 Pat Duggan 24.80 Maria Ionescu Snezhana Kerkova

Heat two Rank Name Nationality Time Notes 1 Gisela Köhler-Birkemeyer 24.32 2 Catherine Capdevielle 24.46 3 Ulla-Britt Wieslander 24.82 4 Jean Hiscock 24.85 5 Ilana Karaszyk 26.69 Jean Holmes

Heat three Rank Name Nationality Time Notes 1 Jutta Heine 24.04 2 Norma Croker-Fleming 24.35 3 Alena Stolzová 24.85 4 Lyudmila Ignatyeva 24.90 5 Valerie Morgan 25.39 Stephie D'Souza

Heat four Rank Name Nationality Time Notes 1 Barbara Lerczak-Janiszewska-Sobotta 24.08 2 Mariya Itkina 24.20 3 Antónia Munkácsi 24.53 4 Mona Sulaiman 25.98 Christiana Boateng Carlota Gooden

Heat five Rank Name Nationality Time Notes 1 Dorothy Hyman 23.82 2 Celina Jesionowska 24.45 3 Eleanor Haslam 24.63 4 Ernestine Pollards 24.64 5 Olga Šikovec 24.95 Betty Cuthbert

Heat six Rank Name Nationality Time Notes 1 Wilma Rudolph 23.30 OR 2 Valentyna Maslovska 24.12 3 Jenny Smart 24.12 4 Halina Górecka 24.31 5 Maeve Kyle 25.06 6 Erzsébet Heldt 25.50

Semifinals

Held on September 5 from 3:40pm

The fastest three runners in each of the two heats advanced to the final round.

Heat one Rank Name Nationality Time Notes 1 Wilma Rudolph 23.79 2 Jutta Heine 24.15 3 Barbara Lerczak-Janiszewska-Sobotta 24.36 4 Norma Croker-Fleming 24.44 5 Jenny Smart 24.74 6 Valentina Maslovskaya 24.77 7 Catherine Capdevielle 25.04

Heat two Rank Name Nationality Time Notes 1 Giuseppina Leone 24.69 2 Dorothy Hyman 24.78 3 Mariya Itkina 24.81 4 Gisela Köhler-Birkemeyer 25.05 5 Lucinda Williams 25.14 6 Celina Jesionowska 25.45 Halina Górecka

Final

Held on September 5 at 5:10pm

Rank Name Nationality Time Notes Wilma Rudolph 24.13 Jutta Heine 24.58 Dorothy Hyman 24.82 4 Mariya Itkina 24.85 5 Barbara Lerczak-Janiszewska-Sobotta 24.96 6 Giuseppina Leone 25.01

Key: OR = Olympic record

Note: For the only time in Olympic sprint history, every finalist ran their fastest time for the event in the heats and their slowest time in the final, owing to rain, head winds and the schedule where the finalists had less than 90 minutes rest between the semi-final and final, instead of the usual entire day.

References