Athletics at the 2004 Summer Olympics – Men's 200 metres

The men's 200 metres at the 2004 Summer Olympics as part of the athletics program was held at the Athens Olympic Stadium from August 24 to 26. There were 54 competitors from 41 nations. The event was won by 0.22 seconds by Shawn Crawford of the United States, the nation's 17th victory in the men's 200 metres after missing the podium entirely four years prior. His teammates Bernard Williams (silver) and Justin Gatlin (bronze) completed the sixth American sweep in the event and first since 1984.

Barely turned eighteen, Usain Bolt came to the Olympics injured and was not able to compete at the level he had achieved earlier in the season. He was eliminated in the heats in his only Olympic defeat. He would eventually go on to win double gold at the Beijing Games, and triple at the London and Rio Olympics.

Background

This was the 24th appearance of the event, which was not held at the first Olympics in 1896 but has been on the program ever since. Two of the eight finalists from the 2000 Games returned: silver medalist Darren Campbell and fifth-place finisher Christian Malcolm, both of Great Britain. The 1992 and 1996 silver medalist, Frankie Fredericks of Namibia, had missed the 2000 Games due to injury but returned in 2004. Reigning Olympic champion Konstantinos Kenteris of Greece missed a drug test the day before the Games opened, resulting in his suspension.

Azerbaijan, the Czech Republic, Palau, and Slovenia each made their debut in the event. The United States made its 23rd appearance, most of any nation, having missed only the boycotted 1980 Games.

Summary

The final pool looked similar to the 100 metres final pool, with the favorites, Justin Gatlin, Francis Obikwelu and Shawn Crawford in the center of the track. Bernard Williams also was in the final, along with perennial silver medalist Frankie Fredericks. From the gun, Williams near the inside got a clearly better start, quickly making up a step on the stagger to Crawford to his outside. But through the turn, Crawford maintained the distance while running the further distance. Crawford and Gatlin ran about even last portion of the turn looked more powerful than Williams and Gatlin on either side. By the end of the turn, it was the three Americans in the lead, led by Crawford, Obikwelu the closest challenger a step behind. Crawford separated from Gatlin at the head of the straight and the race was for second. Gatlin held the edge down the straight until the last ten metres when Gatlin seemed to struggle and Williams cruised to silver. Next to last at the beginning of the straight, veteran Fredericks gained steadily and was able to dip past Obikwelu for fourth, but not enough to break up the American sweep.

Qualification

The Olympic qualification period for the athletics ran from 1 January 2003 to 9 August 2004. For this event, each National Olympic Committee (NOC) was permitted to enter up to three athletes, provided they had run below 20.59 seconds during this period in IAAF-sanctioned meetings or tournaments. If a NOC had no athletes qualified under this standard, it could enter up to one athlete that had run below 20.75 seconds.

Competition format

The competition used the four round format introduced in 1920: heats, quarterfinals, semifinals, and a final. The "fastest loser" system introduced in 1960 was used in the heats and quarterfinals.

There were 7 heats of 7 or 8 runners each, with the top 4 men in each advancing to the quarterfinals along with the next 4 fastest overall. The quarterfinals consisted of 4 heats of 8 athletes each; the 3 fastest men in each heat and the next 4 fastest overall advanced to the semifinals. There were 2 semifinals, each with 8 runners. The top 4 athletes in each semifinal advanced. The final had 8 runners. The races were run on a 400 metre track.

Records , the existing world, Olympic record, and world leading time were as follows:

No new world or Olympic records were set during the competition.

Schedule

The competition used a three-day schedule rather than a two-day schedule, splitting the semifinals and final into two days. The three-day schedule had previously been used in 1992, but before that had last been used in 1908.

All times are Eastern European Summer Time (UTC+3)

Date Time RoundTuesday, 24 August 2004 10:3520:00 Round 1QuarterfinalsWednesday, 25 August 2004 22:50 SemifinalsThursday, 26 August 2004 22:50 Final

Results

Heats

Qualification rule: The first four finishers in each heat (Q) plus the next four fastest overall runners (q) qualified.

Heat 1

Rank Lane Athlete Nation Reaction Time Notes 1 6 Stéphane Buckland 0.185 20.29 2 2 Francis Obikwelu 0.243 20.40 2 2 Juan Pedro Toledo 0.214 20.40 , NR 4 4 Yang Yaozu 0.217 20.59 , 5 7 Johan Wissman 0.245 20.60 6 1 Paul Brizzel 0.179 21.00 7 3 Nabie Foday Fofanah 0.227 21.45 — 8 Hamed Al-Bishi — Wind: +1.5 m/s

Heat 2

Rank Lane Athlete Nation Reaction Time Notes 1 5 Shawn Crawford 0.272 20.55 2 8 Christopher Williams 0.140 20.57 3 3 Marcin Urbaś 0.174 20.71 , 4 2 Darren Campbell 0.155 20.72 5 1 Jaysuma Saidy Ndure 0.158 20.78 6 4 Leigh Julius 0.164 20.80 7 6 Geronimo Goeloe 0.167 21.09 8 7 Basílio de Moraes Júnior 0.236 21.14 Wind: +1.4 m/s

Heat 3

Rank Lane Athlete Nation Reaction Time Notes 1 5 Frankie Fredericks 0.235 20.54 2 3 Malik Louahla 0.187 20.67 3 4 David Canal 0.181 20.72 4 1 Brian Dzingai 0.184 20.72 5 7 Heber Viera 0.256 20.94 6 2 Oleg Sergeyev 0.269 20.95 7 8 Menzi Dlamini 0.270 21.82 — 6 Chris Lambert 0.244 Wind: +2.0 m/s

Heat 4

Rank Lane Athlete Nation Reaction Time Notes 1 7 Marcin Jędrusiński 0.256 20.63 , 2 2 Tobias Unger 0.160 20.65 3 6 Joseph Batangdon 0.239 20.92 4 8 Géza Pauer 0.257 21.02 5 5 Usain Bolt 0.254 21.05 6 1 Christian Nsiah 0.146 21.06 7 3 Hamoud Abdallah Al-Dalhami 0.152 21.82 8 4 Ryo Matsuda 0.223 24.59 Wind: 0.0 m/s

Heat 5

Rank Lane Athlete Nation Reaction Time Notes 1 7 Dominic Demeritte 0.246 20.62 2 8 Christian Malcolm 0.284 20.62 3 5 Panagiotis Sarris 0.254 20.67 4 3 Asafa Powell 0.207 20.77 5 2 Jiří Vojtík 0.179 20.79 6 4 Dion Crabbe 0.231 20.85 7 6 Nazmizan Mohamad 0.238 21.24 8 1 Adam Miller 0.198 21.31 Wind: +2.2 m/s

Heat 6

Rank Lane Athlete Nation Reaction Time Notes 1 2 Bernard Williams 0.207 20.29 2 8 Anastasios Gousis 0.236 20.44 , 3 3 Andrew Howe 0.198 20.55 4 4 Matic Osovnikar 0.203 20.57 5 6 Till Helmke 0.241 20.72 6 5 Oumar Loum 0.240 20.97 7 7 Anninos Marcoullides 0.247 23.94 Wind: +1.8 m/s

Heat 7

Rank Lane Athlete Nation Reaction Time Notes 1 2 Sebastian Ernst 0.220 20.47 , = 2 8 Justin Gatlin 0.282 20.51 3 6 Marco Torrieri 0.222 20.68 4 5 Cláudio Roberto Souza 0.165 20.70 , = 5 7 Brendan Christian 0.251 20.71 6 4 Shinji Takahira 0.212 21.05 7 3 Dadaş İbrahimov 0.141 21.60 8 1 Russel Roman 0.264 24.89 Wind: 0.0 m/s

Quarterfinals

Qualification rule: The first three finishers in each heat (Q) plus the next four fastest overall runners (q) advance to the semifinals.

Quarterfinal 1

Rank Lane Athlete Nation Reaction Time Notes 1 4 Shawn Crawford 0.207 19.95 2 5 Frankie Fredericks 0.228 20.20 , 3 3 Tobias Unger 0.162 20.30 , 4 6 Christopher Williams 0.186 20.34 , 5 1 Johan Wissman 0.186 20.74 6 7 Géza Pauer 0.241 20.90 7 2 David Canal 0.179 21.18 — 8 Joseph Batangdon — Wind: +1.1 m/s

Quarterfinal 2

Rank Lane Athlete Nation Reaction Time Notes 1 4 Bernard Williams 0.217 20.40 2 3 Anastasios Gousis 0.195 20.46 3 6 Marcin Jędrusiński 0.194 20.55 , 4 7 Till Helmke 0.144 20.76 5 8 Brian Dzingai 0.206 20.87 6 2 Marco Torrieri 0.177 20.89 7 5 Malik Louahla 0.175 20.93 8 1 Yang Yaozu 0.162 21.03 Wind: +0.2 m/s

Quarterfinal 3

Rank Lane Athlete Nation Reaction Time Notes 1 4 Justin Gatlin 0.220 20.03 2 8 Asafa Powell 0.206 20.23 3 5 Sebastian Ernst 0.244 20.36 , 4 7 Matic Osovnikar 0.235 20.47 , NR 5 6 Christian Malcolm 0.259 20.56 6 3 Dominic Demeritte 0.141 20.61 7 2 Brendan Christian 0.182 20.63 — 1 Marcin Urbaś 0.162 Wind: +0.5 m/s

Quarterfinal 4

Rank Lane Athlete Nation Reaction Time Notes 1 3 Francis Obikwelu 0.191 20.33 2 5 Stéphane Buckland 0.239 20.36 3 6 Juan Pedro Toledo 0.276 20.43 4 2 Darren Campbell 0.179 20.59 , = 5 8 Cláudio Roberto Souza 0.159 20.64 6 7 Jaysuma Saidy Ndure 0.248 20.73 7 1 Panagiotis Sarris 0.184 20.92 8 4 Andrew Howe 0.211 21.17 Wind: +0.1 m/s

Semifinals

Qualification rule: The first four runners in each semifinal heat (Q) moves on to the final.

Semifinal 1

Rank Lane Athlete Nation Reaction Time Notes16 Shawn Crawford 0.231 20.05 24 Bernard Williams 0.200 20.18 33 Frankie Fredericks 0.152 20.43 42 Tobias Unger 0.173 20.54 55 Anastasios Gousis 0.205 20.68 67 Christopher Williams 0.164 20.80 78 Marcin Jędrusiński 0.245 20.81 81 Darren Campbell 0.150 20.89 Wind: −0.1 m/s

Semifinal 2

Rank Lane Athlete Nation Reaction Time Notes14 Justin Gatlin 0.195 20.35 26 Francis Obikwelu 0.244 20.36 33 Stéphane Buckland 0.183 20.37 45 Asafa Powell 0.236 20.56 58 Sebastian Ernst 0.299 20.63 62 Juan Pedro Toledo 0.215 20.64 77 Christian Malcolm 0.239 20.77 81 Matic Osovnikar 0.197 20.89 Wind: +0.2 m/s

Final

Rank Lane Athlete Nation Reaction Time Notes 4 Shawn Crawford 0.226 19.79 3 Bernard Williams 0.173 20.01 5 Justin Gatlin 0.195 20.034 8 Frankie Fredericks 0.248 20.14 5 6 Francis Obikwelu 0.183 20.146 7 Stéphane Buckland 0.294 20.247 1 Tobias Unger 0.153 20.64 — 2 Asafa Powell — Wind: +1.2 m/s

References

External links IAAF Athens 2004 Olympic Coverage