{"id":1691,"date":"2012-11-03T10:02:27","date_gmt":"2012-11-03T17:02:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/?p=1691"},"modified":"2012-11-03T10:04:49","modified_gmt":"2012-11-03T17:04:49","slug":"top-200-meter-performances-of-all-time-women","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/?p=1691","title":{"rendered":"Top 200 Meter Races of All Time – Women"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Allyson<\/a>
\nThe men’s event was tough, the women were even tougher. The biggest problem being depth, as most races over the years have suffers from lack of great depth. Just as in the 100, the great female sprint crews of the 90s have a presence on this list, but there is a nice sprinkling of some of the greatest female sprinters of all time with Evelyn Ashford, Valerie Brisco, and the New Millennium group of Felix, Campbell Brown, Jeter, and Fraser Pryce, among others are also heard from.<\/p>\n

There have been great 100 meter runs and great quarter miles, but after reviewing things of 200 meter races, I’m convinced that this event had seen the best of female sprinting. With that, here are what I considered the ten best women’s deuces ever.<\/p>\n

1. 1988 Olympics<\/strong> – A runaway winner in spite of FloJo’ s runaway victory. Yes it’s nice that the WR was set, but it’s the fact that it’s the only race ever with four women under 22.00 that makes it #1! No other women’s race has seen this kind of depth, and the race behind Flo was hot. And just like Atlanta for the men, second place was faster than the WR at the start of the year. This was easily the best tract every over the distance – and one of the best supporting races ever IMHO.<\/p>\n

21.34 – Florence Griffith Joyner
\n21.72 – Grace Jackson
\n21.95 – Heike Drechsler
\n21.99 – Merlene Ottey
\n22.09 – Silka Moller
\n22.17 – Gwen Torrence
\n22.33 – Maya Azarashvili
\n22.42 – Galina Malchugina <\/p>\n

2. 1984<\/a><\/strong> Olympics<\/strong> – This race and my #3 race gave me fits trying to decide which went where. In the end it was the closeness of Los Angeles combined with the impact the race had on the all time list, that gained this race the #2 slot. Brisco Hooks was sterling on the turn, while Griffith, Ottey and Cook gave valiant chase, making the race exciting on top of everything stated above. The winning time was #2 all time in ’84 and the race itself the best finish ever for a field to date. A third of this field returned for the Big ’88 race.<\/p>\n

21.81 – Valerie Brisco Hooks
\n22.04 – Florence Griffith
\n22.09 – Merlene Ottey
\n22.10 – Kathy Smallwood
\n22.20 -Grace Jackson
\n22.36 – Randy Givens
\n22.78 – Rose Aimee Backup
\n22.86 – Lilliane Gascet<\/p>\n

3. 2008 Olympics<\/strong> – The second Olympic showdown between Veronica Campbell Brown and Allyson Felix produced another affair with two women under 22.00. As their races tend to be run, we got the classic turn v straight 200 matchup with the turn winning round two. We also got two other women right on the edge of sub22 – making this the deepest race outside of Seoul and number three on my list. Felix and Campbell Brown returned again to go head to head in London ’12.<\/p>\n

21.74.- Veronica Campbell Brown
\n21.93 – Allyson Felix
\n22.00 – Kerron Stewart
\n22.01 – Muna Lee
\n22.34 – Marshevet Hooker
\n22.36 – Sherone Simpson
\n22.61 – Debbie Ferguson McKenzie
\n22.68 – Cydonie Mothersill<\/p>\n

4. 1988<\/a><\/strong> Olympic Trials<\/strong> – The women’s 100 is the race everyone talks about from ’88, but this was the best race of the meet as Pam Marshall showed her stuff and pressed Griffith Joyner down the stretch. Joyner had run a near WR in the rounds,but Marshall was not intimidated. Easily the best Olympic Trials performance ever among some of the best US sprinters of all time. Defending Olympic champ Brisco just missed the team to rising star Torrence as a generational change was in the offing.<\/p>\n

21.85 – Florence Griffith Joyner
\n21.93 – Pam Marshall
\n22.02 – Gwen Torrence
\n22.11 – Valerie Brisco
\n22.39 – Alice Brown
\n22.52 – Dannette Young
\n22.93 – Wenda Vereen
\n22.98 – Diane Williams<\/p>\n

5. 1999<\/a><\/strong> World Championships<\/strong> – This is another race that gave me fits – sort of the women’s version of the men’s Edmonton race. Here we had a sterling run by Miller in what proved to be the last significant meet of her career, and then a drop off to an extremely close race for the next four spots and the remaining two medals with .06 separating the four sprinters. The excitement of the race, plus the closeness of the the finish of the field moves this race into the upper half of the list – in spite of the less than stellar times.<\/p>\n

21.77 – Inger Miller
\n22.22 – Beverly McDonald
\n22.26 – Merlene Fraser
\n22.26 – Andrea Philip
\n22.28 – Debbie Ferguson
\n22.42 – Fatima Yusuf
\n22.53 – Lauren Hewitt
\n22.64 – Juliet Campbell<\/p>\n

6. 1987<\/a><\/strong> World Championships<\/strong> – This is the original double sub race, as Gladisch burned the turn and Griffith gave pursuit. Gladisch, better known as a100 meter runner made a major move up on the all-time list here – and judging from Griffith’s results a year later taught Florence a valuable lesson. The results were solid through the first four, with a young Torrence getting valuable seasoning.<\/p>\n

21.74 – Silke Gladisch
\n21.96 – Florence Griffith
\n22.06 – Merlene Ottey
\n22.18 – Pam Marshall
\n22.40 – Gwen Torrence
\n22.52 – Mary Onyali
\n22.52 – Ewa Kasprzyk
\n22.55 – Nadezhna Georgieva<\/p>\n

7. 1992<\/a><\/strong> Olympics<\/strong> – That 90s group of Torrence, Ottey, Privalova and crew strike here in the deuce with a race that highlighted Torrence’s late race strength. Coming off the turn with several women lined up across the track 100 meter style, Torrence powered down the stretch with the field leaning for medals behind her. A nice sub22 and a pair of 22 “flats” along with an exciting finish garners this race a spot on the list.<\/p>\n

21.81 – Gwen Torrence
\n22.02 – Juliet Cuthbert
\n22.09 – Merlene Ottey
\n22.19 – Irina Privalova
\n22.30 – Carlette Guidry
\n22.58 – Grace Jackson
\n22.61 – Michelle Finn
\n22.63 – Galina Malchugina<\/p>\n

8. 1993<\/a><\/strong> World Championships<\/strong> – This was almost #7, the races were that close for me. This was the closest finish for 1,2 of all the races on the list. A Classic between Ottey and Torrence – and Ottey’s one big gold medal run – with the race coming down to the lean at the tape. Throw in decent times for the top half of the race and this is a good spot I think as the 90s crew strikes again.<\/p>\n

21.98 – Merlene Ottey
\n22.00 – Gwen Torrence
\n22.13 – Irina Privalova
\n22.20 – Marie Jose Parec
\n22.32 – Mary Onyali
\n22.50 – Natalya Voronova
\n22.50 – Galina Malchugina
\n23.04 – Dannette Young<\/p>\n

9. 2012<\/a><\/strong> Olympics <\/strong>– Perhaps the most loaded field ever in terms of pure speed with all three 100 medalists coming back to double, and four women with 100 Meter bests under 10.90 – making the turn critical. And that’s what we got, an exciting turn as half the field battled the first 100 for advantage into the straight. Strength prevailed in the end as the field strung out in the straight, choosing the race a bit higher ranking. Felix finally got Olympic gold to go with three World titles.<\/p>\n

21.88 – Allyson Felix
\n22.09 – Shelley Ann Fraser Pryce
\n22.14 – Carmelita Jeter
\n22.38 – Veronica Campbell Brown
\n22.39 – Sanya Richards Ross
\n22.57 – Murielle Ahoure
\n22.63 – Myriam Soumare
\n22.87 – Semoy Hacket<\/p>\n

10. 1979<\/a><\/strong> World Cup<\/strong> – This race was a two woman affair, and the marks behind these two were decent for the time thru 4th place and a bit less than average thereafter – as most World Cup results have been. But that two woman race was one of the most significant in the history of the sport as it was the defining moment between the West and East during the days of Eastern Bloc dominance of the sport. Ashford’s victory against the WR holder was a crushing blow and began her reign as perhaps the sports greatest ever female sprinter – and moved her to the #2 spot on the all time list. With Koch nearly sub22 it was easily the fastest race to date as this dynamic duo left the rest in their wake. I toyed with a couple other races for this spot, but this race was both to dynamic and significant to leave it off.<\/p>\n

21.83 – Evelyn Ashford
\n22.02 – Marita Koch
\n22.66 – Lyudmila Kondratyeva
\n22.78 – Annegret Richter
\n22.83 – Angela Taylor
\n23.61 – Hannah Afriyie
\n23.78 – Kim Robertson
\n24.60 – Sumiko Kaihara<\/p>\n

I can only imagine what it’s going to be like trying to rank the 400 meters. Times, finishes, depth. This is a bit more difficult than I expected. But a lot of fun reviewing, reliving, some of the greatest races ever.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The men’s event was tough, the women were even tougher. The biggest problem being depth, as most races over the years have suffers from lack of great depth. Just as in the 100, the great female sprint crews of the 90s have a presence on this list, but there is a nice sprinkling of some of the greatest female sprinters of all time with Evelyn Ashford, Valerie Brisco, and the New Millennium group of Felix, Campbell Brown, Jeter, and Fraser Pryce, among others are also heard from. There have been great 100 meter runs and great quarter miles, but after reviewing things of 200 meter races, I’m convinced that this event had seen the best of female sprinting. With that, here are what I considered the ten best women’s deuces ever. 1. 1988 Olympics – A runaway winner in spite of FloJo’ s runaway victory. Yes it’s nice that the WR was set, but it’s the fact that it’s the only race ever with four women under 22.00 that makes it #1! No other women’s race has seen this kind of depth, and the race behind Flo was hot. And just like Atlanta for the men, second place was faster than the WR at the start of the year. This was easily the best tract every over the distance – and one of the best supporting races ever IMHO. 21.34 – Florence Griffith Joyner 21.72 – Grace Jackson 21.95 – Heike Drechsler 21.99 – Merlene Ottey 22.09 – Silka Moller 22.17 – Gwen Torrence 22.33 – Maya Azarashvili 22.42 – Galina Malchugina 2. 1984 Olympics – This race and my #3 race gave me fits trying to decide which went where. In the end it was the closeness of Los Angeles combined with the impact the race had on the all time list, that gained this race the #2 slot. Brisco Hooks was sterling on the turn, while Griffith, Ottey and Cook gave valiant chase, making the race exciting on top of everything stated above. The winning time was #2 all time in ’84 and the race itself the best finish ever for a field to date. A third of this field returned for the Big ’88 race. 21.81 – Valerie Brisco Hooks 22.04 – Florence Griffith 22.09 – Merlene Ottey 22.10 – Kathy Smallwood 22.20 -Grace Jackson 22.36 – Randy Givens 22.78 – Rose Aimee Backup 22.86 – Lilliane Gascet 3. 2008 Olympics – The second Olympic showdown between Veronica Campbell Brown and Allyson Felix produced another affair with two women under 22.00. As their races tend to be run, we got the classic turn v straight 200 matchup with the turn winning round two. We also got two other women right on the edge of sub22 – making this the deepest race outside of Seoul and number three on my list. Felix and Campbell Brown returned again to go head to head in London ’12. 21.74.- Veronica Campbell Brown 21.93 – Allyson Felix 22.00 – Kerron Stewart 22.01 – Muna Lee 22.34 – Marshevet Hooker 22.36 – Sherone Simpson 22.61 – Debbie Ferguson McKenzie 22.68 – Cydonie Mothersill 4. 1988 Olympic Trials – The women’s 100 is the race everyone talks about from ’88, but this was the best race of the meet as Pam Marshall showed her stuff and pressed Griffith Joyner down the stretch. Joyner had run a near WR in the rounds,but Marshall was not intimidated. Easily the best Olympic Trials performance ever among some of the best US sprinters of all time. Defending Olympic champ Brisco just missed the team to rising star Torrence as a generational change was in the offing. 21.85 – Florence Griffith Joyner 21.93 – Pam Marshall 22.02 – Gwen Torrence 22.11 – Valerie Brisco 22.39 – Alice Brown 22.52 – Dannette Young 22.93 – Wenda Vereen 22.98 – Diane Williams 5. 1999 World Championships – This is another race that gave me fits – sort of the women’s version of the men’s Edmonton race. Here we had a sterling run by Miller in what proved to be the last significant meet of her career, and then a drop off to an extremely close race for the next four spots and the remaining two medals with .06 separating the four sprinters. The excitement of the race, plus the closeness of the the finish of the field moves this race into the upper half of the list – in spite of the less than stellar times. 21.77 – Inger Miller 22.22 – Beverly McDonald 22.26 – Merlene Fraser 22.26 – Andrea Philip 22.28 – Debbie Ferguson 22.42 – Fatima Yusuf 22.53 – Lauren Hewitt 22.64 – Juliet Campbell 6. 1987 World Championships – This is the original double sub race, as Gladisch burned the turn and Griffith gave pursuit. Gladisch, better known as a100 meter runner made a major move up on the all-time list here – and judging from Griffith’s results a year later taught Florence a valuable lesson. The results were solid through the first four, with a young Torrence getting valuable seasoning. 21.74 – Silke Gladisch 21.96 – Florence Griffith 22.06 – Merlene Ottey 22.18 – Pam Marshall 22.40 – Gwen Torrence 22.52 – Mary Onyali 22.52 – Ewa Kasprzyk 22.55 – Nadezhna Georgieva 7. 1992 Olympics – That 90s group of Torrence, Ottey, Privalova and crew strike here in the deuce with a race that highlighted Torrence’s late race strength. Coming off the turn with several women lined up across the track 100 meter style, Torrence powered down the stretch with the field leaning for medals behind her. A nice sub22 and a pair of 22 “flats” along with an exciting finish garners this race a spot on the list. 21.81 – Gwen Torrence 22.02 – Juliet Cuthbert 22.09 – Merlene Ottey 22.19 – Irina Privalova 22.30 – Carlette Guidry 22.58 – Grace Jackson 22.61 – Michelle Finn 22.63 – Galina Malchugina 8. 1993 World Championships – This was almost #7, the races were that close for me. This was the closest finish for 1,2 of all the races on the list. A Classic between Ottey and Torrence – and Ottey’s one big gold medal run – with the race coming down to the lean at the tape. Throw in decent times for the top half of the race and this is a good spot I think as the 90s crew strikes again. 21.98 – Merlene Ottey 22.00 – Gwen Torrence 22.13 – Irina Privalova 22.20 – Marie Jose Parec 22.32 – Mary Onyali 22.50 – Natalya Voronova 22.50 – Galina Malchugina 23.04 – Dannette Young 9. 2012 Olympics – Perhaps the most loaded field ever in terms of pure speed with all three 100 medalists coming back to double, and four women with 100 Meter bests under 10.90 – making the turn critical. And that’s what we got, an exciting turn as half the field battled the first 100 for advantage into the straight. Strength prevailed in the end as the field strung out in the straight, choosing the race a bit higher ranking. Felix finally got Olympic gold to go with three World titles. 21.88 – Allyson Felix 22.09 – Shelley Ann Fraser Pryce 22.14 – Carmelita Jeter 22.38 – Veronica Campbell Brown 22.39 – Sanya Richards Ross 22.57 – Murielle Ahoure 22.63 – Myriam Soumare 22.87 – Semoy Hacket 10. 1979 World Cup – This race was a two woman affair, and the marks behind these two were decent for the time thru 4th place and a bit less than average thereafter – as most World Cup results have been. But that two woman race was one of the most significant in the history of the sport as it was the defining moment between the West and East during the days of Eastern Bloc dominance of the sport. Ashford’s victory against the WR holder was a crushing blow and began her reign as perhaps the sports greatest ever female sprinter – and moved her to the #2 spot on the all time list. With Koch nearly sub22 it was easily the fastest race to date as this dynamic duo left the rest in their wake. I toyed with a couple other races for this spot, but this race was both to dynamic and significant to leave it off. 21.83 – Evelyn Ashford 22.02 – Marita Koch 22.66 – Lyudmila Kondratyeva 22.78 – Annegret Richter 22.83 – Angela Taylor 23.61 – Hannah Afriyie 23.78 – Kim Robertson 24.60 – Sumiko Kaihara I can only imagine what it’s going to be like trying to rank the 400 meters. Times, finishes, depth. This is a bit more difficult than I expected. But a lot of fun reviewing, reliving, some of the greatest races ever.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa3DCY-rh","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1672,"url":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/?p=1672","url_meta":{"origin":1691,"position":0},"title":"Top 100 Meter Races of the Modern Era","author":"CHill","date":"October 20, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"A reader had a great idea, to go through and create lists of the top 10 races by event. Nice idea, so I decided to give it a shot. So I'm starting with the 100 - first the men then will follow with the women - and will work my\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 14 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 14 comments","link":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/?p=1672#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"Me for Blog pic","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/trackchill.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/Me-for-Blog-pic_thumb.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1705,"url":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/?p=1705","url_meta":{"origin":1691,"position":1},"title":"Top Ten 400 Meter Races of All Time – Women","author":"CHill","date":"November 14, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"This one was a bit harder than the others. In large part because the all time list is heavily populated by Eastern Bloc athletes. At the end of the day however, the results sorted themselves out because many of the too times occurred in races that were outside of major\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 10 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 10 comments","link":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/?p=1705#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"Sanya R-R","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/trackchill.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/Sanya-R-R_thumb.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":740,"url":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/?p=740","url_meta":{"origin":1691,"position":2},"title":"Potential 2012 Match Ups to Watch For","author":"CHill","date":"January 3, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Things should start heating up pretty quickly now. The U.S. Marathon Trials are in less than two weeks, and the indoor season will be going strong by the end of the month. So we\u2019ll be full gear into the buildup for London in just a few weeks. Of course one\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Bekele\"","block_context":{"text":"Bekele","link":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/?tag=bekele"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1771,"url":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/?p=1771","url_meta":{"origin":1691,"position":3},"title":"Let the Deuce Shine","author":"CHill","date":"January 20, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Early in every season I feel compelled to talk about the deuce - 200 meters. For starters, it's one of my favorite events, combining the speed of the 100 with the strength\/speed endurance of the quarter. Throw in that stagger on the turn that sort of makes you wait to\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 6 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 6 comments","link":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/?p=1771#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"Yohan Blake","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/trackchill.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/Yohan-Blake_thumb1.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":422,"url":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/?p=422","url_meta":{"origin":1691,"position":4},"title":"Top of My Xmas Wish List\u2013Hot Rivalries","author":"CHill","date":"December 10, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"This is the time of year when you submit your wish list to Santa Claus in hopes that come Christmas morning you will find something special beneath the tree. While that list has already been sent off, I do have another list that I\u2019m hoping the \u201cSanta\u201d of track and\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 4 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 4 comments","link":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/?p=422#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"OSAKA, JAPAN - AUGUST 30: (L-R) Second placed Usain Bolt of Jamaica and race winner Tyson Gay of the United States of America cross the finish line during the Men's 200m Final on day six of the 11th IAAF World Athletics Championships on August 30, 2007 at the Nagai Stadium in Osaka, Japan. 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