A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the 800m Finals

How fast did these women really run?

Despite all the heat and humidity, the women in the 800m semi-finals seem to have been shot from a cannon. These were far and away the fastest semi-finals ever at a world champs. The chart below summarizes all 11 world championship semi-final heats.

year	# of sub2s in semi that didn't make it	fastest semi time	slowest semi time to qualify	fastest semi time to not qualify
2007	6	1:56.17	1:58.56	1:58.62 (3 heats, top 2 + 2 fastest qualify)
2005	1	1:57.92	1:59.40	1:59.45 (3 heats, top 2 + 2 fastest qualify)
2003	0	1:58.45	2:00.42	2:00.56 (3 heats, top 2 + 2 fastest qualify)
2001	0	1:59.47	2:02.16	2:01.04 (2 heats, top 4 qualify)
1999	0	1.59:25	2:00.67	2:00.33 (2 heats, top 3 + 2 fastest qualify)
1997	1	1:57.49	2:00.29	1:59.45 (2 heats, top 4 qualify)
1995	1	1:58.49	2:02.75	1:59.45 (2 heats, top 4 qualify)
1993	3	1:57.31	1:59.17	1:58.64 (2 heats, top 4 qualify)
1991	1	1:59.10	2:00.30	1:59.93 (2 heats, top 4 qualify)
1987	1	1:57.96	2:02.27	1:59.34 (2 heats, top 3 + 2 fastest qualify)
1983	1	1:59.33	2:00.22	1:59.96 (2 heats, top 4 qualify)

The 2007 semifinal is a banner semi for a ton of reasons:

•   Far and away the most athletes to run sub 2 and not qualify (six), previous high was three from the 1993 meet.

•   Kipkosgei's 1:56.17 (Kenyan National Record) time is the fastest time ever run in a WC semi (previous fastest was 1:57.31 from '93)

•   The 2007 semi-final is also notable because its slowest competitor (1:58.56) had to run faster than any other slowest qualifier to make it in (see column 4).

•   The semi had the fastest non-qualifier ever: 1:58.62 from Klocova in the first heat. Previous fastest was Kelly Holmes's 1993 time of 1:58.64.

•   Up until now, 2007 has been a slower year for the women's 800m. Most races have been won by times in the 1:59-2:00 range, so this round of semi-finals produced many of the world leading times over the distance - highly unusual for a qualifying round.