Quick Facts Women's 400 metres at the Games of the XIX Olympiad, Venue ...

Women's 400 metres at the Games of the XIX Olympiad
Venue	Estadio Olímpico Universitario
Date	October 14–16
Competitors	29 from 22 nations
Winning time	52.0
Medalists
Colette Besson  France Lillian Board  Great Britain Natalya Pechonkina  Soviet Union
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The Women's 400 metres competition at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, Mexico was held at the University Olympic Stadium on October 14–16.^[1]

In the final, running in lane 1, Lillian Board went out fast, making up the stagger on Aurelia Pentón in lane 2. In lane 4, Jarvis Scott did the same to Colette Besson in lane 5 who was passing Mirna van der Hoeven-Jansen in 6. On the backstretch, Scott opened up a clear lead on the field. Through the final turn, Natalya Pechonkina in lane 8 started to make headway against Scott's lead, with Board sandwiching the challenge from the inside. Coming off the turn, Board attacked and took the lead, Besson was still more than two metres behind Scott, but the rush was on. Besson shot past Scott and gained on Board with every step. After her early exuberance, Scott had no answer. Besson passed Board 10 metres before the line with Pechonkina taking bronze well ahead of Janet Simpson.

The Women's 200m competition consisted of heats (Round 1), Semifinals and a Final. The four fastest competitors from each race in the heats qualified for the Semifinals. The four fastest competitors from each of the Semifinal races qualified for the final.

Prior to the competition, the existing World and Olympic records were as follows.

World record	Shin Geum-Dan (PRK)	51.9	Pyongyang, North Korea	October 23, 1962
Olympic record	Betty Cuthbert (AUS)	52.0	Tokyo, Japan	October 17, 1964