The women's coxed four competition at the 1988 Summer Olympics took place at took place at Han River Regatta Course, South Korea.
Competition format
The competition consisted of two main rounds (heats and finals) as well as a repechage. The 10 boats were divided into two heats for the first round, with 5 boats in each heat. The winner of each heat (2 boats total) advanced directly to the "A" final (for 1st through 6th place). The remaining 8 boats were placed in the repechage. The repechage featured two heats, with 4 boats in each heat. The top two boats in each repechage heat (4 boats total) advanced to the "A" final. The remaining 4 boats (3rd and 4th placers in the repechage heats) were eliminated from medal contention and competed in the "B" final for 7th through 10th place.Official Report, vol. 2, pp. 532–33.
All races were over a 2000 metre course, unlike previous Games in which women used a 1000 metre course.
Results
Heats
Heat 1
Rank Rowers Coxswain Nation Time Notes 1 Sylvia Rose 7:11.01 2 Greta GeorgievaThe Official Report does not identify coxswains. For Bulgaria in the heats, the Official Report lists five rowers (the Zareva sisters, Stoichkova, Stoyanova, and Katia Todorova—who may be the same person as Rita Todorova or may be her twin ), but none appear to be coxswains. Georgieva was the coxswain for later rounds. 7:11.59 3 Li Ronghua 7:17.15 4 Lesley Thompson-Willie 7:31.02 5 Nam Sang-ran 8:09.58
Heat 2
Rank Rowers Coxswain Nation Time Notes 1 Ecaterina Oancia 7:21.43 2 Valentina Khokhlova 7:28.73 3 Grażyna Błąd 7:29.72 4 Kim Santiago 7:33.42 5 Alison Norrish 7:38.01
Repechage
Repechage heat 1
Rank Rowers Coxswain Nation Time Notes 1 Greta Georgieva 7:20.78 2 Alison Norrish 7:25.63 3 Lesley Thompson-Willie 7:29.71 4 Grażyna Błąd 7:32.55
Repechage heat 2
Rank Rowers Coxswain Nation Time Notes 1 Li Ronghua 7:23.80 2 Kim Santiago 7:28.01 3 Valentina Khokhlova 7:35.22 4 Nam Sang-ran 8:13.07
Finals
Final B
Rank Rowers Coxswain Nation Time 7 Lesley Thompson-Willie 7:19.86 8 Grażyna Błąd 7:22.59 9 Valentina Khokhlova 7:27.20 10 Nam Sang-ran 8:07.71
Final A
Rank Rowers Coxswain Nation Time Notes Sylvia Rose 6:56.00 Li Ronghua 6:58.78 Ecaterina Oancia 7:01.13 4 Greta Georgieva 7:02.27 5 Kim Santiago 7:09.12 6 Alison Norrish 7:10.80
Final classification
RankRowersNation Martina WaltherGerlinde DoberschützCarola HornigBirte SiechSylvia Rose Zhang XianghuaHu YadongYang XiaoZhou ShouyingLi Ronghua Marioara TrașcăVeronica NeculaHerta AnitașDoina Șnep-BălanEcaterina OanciaMihaela Armasescu (heats)Adriana Bazon (heats) 4 Teodora ZarevaVioleta ZarevaMiglena MikhalevaSvetla DurchovaGreta GeorgievaOlya Stoichkova (heats)Mariana Stoyanova (heats)Katia Todorova (heats) 5 Jennifer CorbetSarah GenglerElizabeth BradleyCynthia EckertKim Santiago 6 Fiona JohnstonKate GroseJoanne GoughSusan SmithAlison Norrish 7 Heather ClarkeTricia SmithLesley Thompson-WillieJane TregunnoJennifer Walinga 8 Grażyna BłądElżbieta JankowskaZyta JarkaElwira LorenzCzesława Kościańska-Szczepińska 9 Valentina KhokhlovaReda RibinskaitėElena TereshinaIrina TeterinaMarina Suprun 10 Gang Min-heungGuk In-sukLee Gwang-sunNam Sang-ranPark Mi-jeong
References