Athletics at the 2008 Summer Olympics – Women's 1500 metres

Women's 1500 metres at the Games of the XXIX Olympiad
Venue	Beijing National Stadium
Dates	21 August 2008 (heats) 23 August 2008 (final)
Competitors	33 from 18 nations
Winning time	4:00.23
Medalists
Nancy Langat  Kenya Iryna Lishchynska  Ukraine Nataliya Tobias  Ukraine
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Athletics at the 2008 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	women
10,000 m	men	women
100 m hurdles		women
110 m hurdles	men
400 m hurdles	men	women
3000 m steeplechase	men	women
4 × 100 m relay	men	women
4 × 400 m relay	men	women
Road events
Marathon	men	women
20 km walk	men	women
50 km walk	men
Field events
Long jump	men	women
Triple jump	men	women
High jump	men	women
Pole vault	men	women
Shot put	men	women
Discus throw	men	women
Javelin throw	men	women
Hammer throw	men	women
Combined events
Heptathlon		women
Decathlon	men
v t e

The women's 1500 metres at the 2008 Summer Olympics took place from 21–23 August at the Beijing National Stadium.^[1]

The qualifying standards were 4:07.00 (A standard) and 4:08.00 (B standard).^[2]

This event was hit hard by the Russian doping scandal on 31 July 2008, as all three Russian entrants, Yuliya Fomenko, Tatyana Tomashova and Yelena Soboleva, were suspended from competition.^[3] These athletes were three of the favourites to take the medals in Beijing.

Prior to this competition, the existing world record, Olympic record, and world leading time were as follows:

World record	Qu Yunxia (CHN)	3:50.46	Beijing, China	11 September 1993
Olympic record	Paula Ivan (ROU)	3:53.96	Seoul, South Korea	1 October 1988
World Leading	Gelete Burka (ETH)	3:59.75	Valencia, Spain	9 March 2008

No new world or Olympic records were set for this event.

Qualification: First 3 in each heat(Q) and the next 3 fastest(q) advance to the final.

Rank	Heat	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	3	Nancy Langat	Kenya	4:03.02	Q, SB
2	3	Nataliya Tobias	Ukraine	4:03.19	Q, SB
3	3	Lisa Dobriskey	Great Britain	4:03.22	Q, PB
4	3	Shannon Rowbury	United States	4:03.89	q
5	3	Anna Alminova	Russia	4:04.66	q
6	1	Maryam Yusuf Jamal	Bahrain	4:05.14	Q
7	1	Natalia Rodríguez	Spain	4:05.30	Q
8	1	Siham Hilali	Morocco	4:05.36	Q, SB
9	1	Anna Mishchenko	Ukraine	4:05.61	q, PB
10	1	Sarah Jamieson	Australia	4:06.64
11	1	Stephanie Twell	Great Britain	4:06.68
12	1	Anna Jakubczak	Poland	4:07.33
13	3	Sylwia Ejdys	Poland	4:08.37
14	3	René Kalmer	South Africa	4:08.41
15	3	Sonja Roman	Slovenia	4:08.52
16	3	Liu Qing	China	4:09.27
17	1	Christin Wurth-Thomas	United States	4:09.70
18	1	Irene Jelagat	Kenya	4:09.92
19	3	Meskerem Assefa	Ethiopia	4:10.04
20	2	Iryna Lishchynska	Ukraine	4:13.60	Q
21	2	Iris Fuentes-Pila	Spain	4:14.10	Q
22	2	Btissam Lakhouad	Morocco	4:14.34	Q
23	2	Susan Scott	Great Britain	4:14.66
24	1	Konstadína Efedáki	Greece	4:15.02
25	2	Viola Kibiwot	Kenya	4:15.62
26	2	Gelete Burka	Ethiopia	4:15.77
27	2	Agnes Samaria	Namibia	4:15.80
28	2	Erin Donohue	United States	4:16.05
29	2	Lisa Corrigan	Australia	4:16.32
30	1	Nahida Touhami	Algeria	4:18.99
31	2	Lidia Chojecka	Poland	4:19.57
32	3	Bouchra Chaabi	Morocco	4:19.89
33	2	Domingas Togna	Guinea-Bissau	5:05.76	NR

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes[4]
	Nancy Langat	Kenya	4:00.03	PB
	Iryna Lishchynska	Ukraine	4:01.63
	Nataliya Tobias	Ukraine	4:01.78	PB
4	Lisa Dobriskey	Great Britain	4:02.10	PB
5	Maryam Yusuf Jamal	Bahrain	4:02.71
6	Natalia Rodríguez	Spain	4:03.19	SB
7	Shannon Rowbury	United States	4:03.58
8	Iris Fuentes-Pila	Spain	4:04.86
9	Anna Mishchenko	Ukraine	4:05.13	PB
10	Siham Hilali	Morocco	4:05.57
11	Anna Alminova	Russia	4:06.99
12	Btissam Lakhouad	Morocco	4:07.25

Intermediate	Athlete	Country	Mark
400m	Anna Alminova	Russia	1:05.90
800m	Anna Alminova	Russia	2:13.70
1200m	Maryam Yusuf Jamal	Bahrain	3:16.41