Athletics at the 1972 Summer Olympics – Women's 1500 metres

Women's 1500 metres at the Games of the XX Olympiad
Venue	Olympic Stadium, Munich, West Germany
Date	4 September 1972 & 9 September 1972
Medalists
Ludmila Bragina  Soviet Union Gunhild Hoffmeister  East Germany Paola Pigni  Italy

Athletics at the 1972 Summer Olympics
Track events
100 m		men		women
200 m		men		women
400 m		men		women
800 m		men		women
1500 m		men		women
5000 m		men
10,000 m		men
100 m hurdles				women
110 m hurdles		men
400 m hurdles		men
3000 m steeplechase		men
4×100 m relay		men		women
4×400 m relay		men		women
Road events
Marathon		men
20 km walk		men
50 km walk		men
Field events
Long jump		men		women
Triple jump		men
High jump		men		women
Pole vault		men
Shot put		men		women
Discus throw		men		women
Javelin throw		men		women
Hammer throw		men
Combined events
Pentathlon				women
Decathlon		men

These are the official results of the Women's 1500 metres event at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich. The competition was held on 4 of September & 9 of September. This was the first time this distance was held for women at the Olympics. Women had not been allowed to compete in any distance since the 800 metres was added in 1960. Women have been compete in the 1500 metres since the 1969 European Athletics Championships.

With the event in its infancy, Ludmila Bragina had just set the world record a month and a half earlier, knocking two and a half seconds off of Karin Burneleit's previous record. Burneleit was in the field, as were previous record holders Jaroslava Jehličková and Paola Pigni. In the first heat, Bragina improved upon her world record by .4. A step behind her, seventeen year old Glenda Reiser set the world junior record, also running faster than the world record at the start of that race. Reiser's time would also qualify as the World Youth Best.

In the first semi final, Reiser was not so lucky, not only did she not run as fast, but she didn't qualify for the final. In the second semi final, Bragina again improved the world record by almost a second and a half, while Jehličková was eliminated.

In the final, Berny Boxem was the early leader, while Bragina languished in dead last place. After the first 600 metres, Bragina decided to change that, moving to the outside and running past the field at a quicker tempo. Only long striding Berny Boxem was able to go with her as Bragina opened up a 10 metre lead on the field. After another 300 metres, Boxem began to fade and was quickly swallowed up by the front of the pack led by Sheila Carey. At the bell Ellen Tittel dropped out, collapsing onto the high jump apron while Bragina continued to expand her lead. Gunhild Hoffmeister moved past Carey into second place but they all were losing ground to Bragina. Several places back, Pigni launched into her kick, passing Burneleit, Keizer, Carey and almost catching Hoffmeister. But Hoffmeister noticed and defended her position, battling to stay ahead. Twice on the home stretch, with her arms flailing, Pigni looked to draw even with Hoffmeister, but each time Hoffmeister edged ahead to take the silver medal. Not only did Bragina set a third consecutive world record, but the next four competitors behind her beat her world record from two days earlier. Even sixth place Keizer was only .06 behind the previous record, at a time when records were only accurate to .1 of a second.

Heats

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

Heat one

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Ludmila Bragina	Soviet Union	4:06.47	WR
2	Glenda Reiser	Canada	4:06.71	WJR
3	Ilja Keizer	Netherlands	4:08.00
4	Jenny Orr	Australia	4:08.06
5	Jaroslava Jehličková	Czechoslovakia	4:08.39
6	Christa Merten	West Germany	4:12.60
7	Joan Allison	Great Britain	4:14.89
8	Marijke Moser	Switzerland	4:24.94
9	Lee Chiu-Hsia	Republic of China	4:37.15

Heat two

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time
1	Paola Pigni	Italy	4:09.53
2	Vasilena Amzina	Bulgaria	4:12.85
3	Berny Boxem	Netherlands	4:13.83
4	Francie Kraker	United States	4:14.73
5	Thelma Wright	Canada	4:15.43
6	Grete Andersen	Norway	4:16.00
7	Sára Ligetkutiné	Hungary	4:16.08
8	Gerda Ranz	West Germany	4:18.60
9	Vera Nikolić	Yugoslavia	4:23.36
-	Arda Kalpakian	Lebanon	DNS

Heat three

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time
1	Tamara Pangelova	Soviet Union	4:10.75
2	Karin Burneleit	East Germany	4:10.83
3	Francie Larrieu	United States	4:11.18
4	Joyce Smith	Great Britain	4:11.27
5	Inger Knutsson	Sweden	4:11.32
6	Mary Tracey	Ireland	4:16.43
7	Sinikka Tyynelä	Finland	4:21.40
8	Emesia Chizunga	Malawi	4:41.47
-	Magdolna Kulcsár	Hungary	DNF

Heat four

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time
1	Ellen Tittel	West Germany	4:12.12
2	Gunhild Hoffmeister	East Germany	4:12.80
3	Sheila Carey	Great Britain	4:13.01
4	Wenche Sørum	Norway	4:14.10
5	Tonka Petrova	Bulgaria	4:14.95
6	Anne-Marie Nenzell	Sweden	4:16.67
7	Margrit Hess	Switzerland	4:19.67
8	Tamara Kazachkova	Soviet Union	4:20.15
9	Chereno Maiyo	Kenya	4:20.9
-	Doris Brown	United States	DNS

Semifinals

The top four runners in each heat (blue) and the next two fastest (pink), advanced to the final round.

Heat one

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time
1	Tamara Pangelova	Soviet Union	4:07.66
2	Paola Pigni	Italy	4:07.83
3	Gunhild Hoffmeister	East Germany	4:07.94
4	Ilja Keizer	Netherlands	4:08.25
5	Vasilena Amzina	Bulgaria	4:09.12
6	Joyce Smith	Great Britain	4:09.37
7	Glenda Reiser	Canada	4:09.51
8	Francie Kraker	United States	4:12.76
9	Inger Knutsson	Sweden	4:14.97

Heat two

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Ludmila Bragina	Soviet Union	4:05.07	WR
2	Karin Burneleit	East Germany	4:05.78
3	Ellen Tittel	West Germany	4:06.65
4	Sheila Carey	Great Britain	4:07.41
5	Berny Boxem	Netherlands	4:08.81
6	Jenny Orr	Australia	4:08.86
7	Wenche Sørum	Norway	4:09.70
8	Francie Larrieu	United States	4:15.26
9	Jaroslava Jehličková	Czechoslovakia	4:18.16

Final

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
	Ludmila Bragina	Soviet Union	4:01.38	WR
	Gunhild Hoffmeister	East Germany	4:02.83
	Paola Pigni	Italy	4:02.85
4	Karin Burneleit	East Germany	4:04.11
5	Sheila Carey	Great Britain	4:04.81
6	Ilja Keizer	Netherlands	4:05.13
7	Tamara Pangelova	Soviet Union	4:06.45
8	Jenny Orr	Australia	4:12.15
9	Berny Boxem	Netherlands	4:13.10
-	Ellen Tittel	West Germany	DNF

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

References

• Sports-reference
• Official report