These are the official results of the Women's 800 metres event at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich. The competition was held on 31 of August and 3 of September. The favorite coming into the Olympics was West German champion and world record holder Hildegard Falck. In the 1971 West German Championships she became the first woman to officially better two minutes. She was the pre Olympic favorite to win the gold on home soil, the rest of the field was wide open to claim the other podium spots.

In the final, like the men's race, the favorite was the slowest starter, though Falck quickly moved into sixth place. By the end of the first lap the field was tightly packed, Ileana Silai, Vera Nikolić and Svetla Zlateva and three abreast for the lead at 58.31. At 500 metres, Falck decided to move and slightly accelerated away from Nijolė Sabaitė and Gunhild Hoffmeister but found herself blocked behind the wall. The wall began to break up during the final turn, Silai the first to start fading allowing Falck some running room, coming off the turn she accelerated into the lead. Pulling away from the field Falck relaxed to cruise across the finish line. Sabaitė made a late run at her from a huge deficit, as she came into view, Falck had to accelerate a little to hold her off for a narrow win. Hoffmeister followed Sabaitė in passing the pack for bronze, but was too far behind to be competitive for higher medals.

While the 2 minute barrier had been broken barely a year before this race, five women finished under 2 minutes here, with the remainder of the field bunched within .17 of a second of 2 minutes. While the world record was 1:58.5 (hand timed at the time), this electronically timed 1:58.55 was intrinsically faster, but that conversion was not included in record keeping. Zlateva would improve the world record the following year.

Heats The top three runners in each heat (blue) and the next fastest (pink), advanced to the semifinal round.

Heat one Rank Athlete Nation Lane Time 1 Hildegard Falck 6 2:01.52 2 Madeline Manning 7 2:02.63 3 Cheryl Peasley 8 2:03.11 4 Mary Tracey-Purcell 3 2:04.18 5 Martine Duvivier 2 2:04.87 6 Donata Govoni 1 2:05.24 7 Elisabeth Neuenschwander 4 2:06.89 - Arda Kalpakian 5 DNS

Heat two Rank Athlete Nation Lane Time Notes 1 Svetla Zlateva 7 1:58.93 OR 2 Vera Nikolić 6 1:59.62 3 Sylvia Schenk 1 2:02.22 4 Elżbieta Skowrońska 2 2:03.26 5 Jenny Orr 8 2:04.46 6 Cheryl Toussaint 4 2:08.90 7 Claire Walsh 3 2:08.98 8 Heather Gooding 5 2:19.69

Heat three Rank Athlete Nation Lane Time 1 Nijolė Sabaitė 4 2:01.50 2 Abby Hoffman 5 2:01.57 3 Maria Sykora 7 2:01.82 4 Gisela Ellenberger 1 2:01.92 5 Maritta Politz 3 2:02.40 6 Margaret Coomber 2 2:02.99 7 Emesia Chizunga 6 2:19.22 - Malak El-Nasser 8 DNF

Heat four Rank Athlete Nation Lane Time 1 Ileana Silai 5 2:01.42 2 Annelise Damm Olesen 3 2:01.77 3 Magdolna Kulcsár 4 2:02.35 4 Patricia Cropper 8 2:03.55 5 Vasilena Amzina 2 2:05.92 6 Marleen Verheuen 7 2:09.13 7 Raissa Ruus 1 2:11.18 8 Lee Chiu-hsia 6 2:11.81

Heat five Rank Athlete Nation Lane Time 1 Nina Morhunova 6 2:02.64 2 Gunhild Hoffmeister 7 2:03.15 3 Rosemary Stirling 1 2:03.64 4 Sue Haden 4 2:04.86 5 Chereno Maiyo 5 2:04.86 6 Wendy Koenig 3 2:08.71 7 Malika Hadky 2 2:12.46

Semifinals

Top four in each heat advanced to the final round.

Heat one Rank Athlete Nation Lane Time 1 Nijolė Sabaitė 3 2:00.90 2 Gunhild Hoffmeister 7 2:01.21 3 Abby Hoffman 4 2:01.37 4 Vera Nikolić 1 2:01.49 5 Sylvia Schenk 2 2:01.50 6 Annelisa Damm Olesen 5 2:04.19 7 Cheryl Peasley 8 2:04.56 - Magdolna Kulcsár 6 DNS

Heat two Rank Athlete Nation Lane Time 1 Hildegard Falck 5 2:01.41 2 Svetla Zlateva 3 2:01.66 3 Ileana Silai 8 2:01.85 4 Rosemary Stirling 6 2:02.36 5 Madeline Manning 2 2:02.39 6 Maria Sykora 4 2:02.44 7 Gisela Ellenberger 7 2:02.97 8 Nina Morhunova 1 2:04.93

Final Rank Athlete Nation Lane Time Notes Hildegard Falck 1 1:58.55 OR Nijolė Sabaitė 5 1:58.65 Gunhild Hoffmeister 6 1:59.19 4 Svetla Zlateva 2 1:59.72 5 Vera Nikolić 8 1:59.98 6 Ileana Silai 3 2:00.04 7 Rosemary Stirling 4 2:00.15 8 Abby Hoffman 7 2:00.17

Key: OR = Olympic record; DNS = did not start; DNF = did not finish

References

External links Official report