200 metres, Women

The favorite was American Allyson Felix who had won the World Championships in 2005 and 2007 and been world ranked #1 since 2005. In Athina, when she was only 18, she had won silver behind Jamaica’s Veronica Campbell (now Campbell-Brown). In five meetings from 2005-2007, Felix had defeated Campbell-Brown every time with comfortable margins, but Campbell-Brown had slightly the better of 2008 performances, and there was little to choose between them. These two won their semi-finals, setting the stage for the confrontation in the final. Campbell-Brown was drawn in lane four, just inside Felix. On the curve she closed the stagger on Felix, and had 2/10ths of a second on her at 100 metres, Felix only in fourth place at that point. Felix closed quickly on the field, but could not make up any ground on Campbell-Brown who maintained her margin to win the gold medal, Felix in second. Jamaica added a second medal when Kerron Stewart added bronze to the silver she had won in the 100. Bahraini runner Rakia Al-Gassra made it to the semis, a remarkable performance considering she ran fully covered up, in accordance with Muslim customs.