| Final 18:50 | time | L | | 1. Kim Batten |  USA | 52.61s | 5 | | 2. Tonja Buford-Bailey | USA | 52.62s | 3 | | 3. Deon Hemmings |  JAM | 53.48s | 4 | | 4. Heike Meissner |  GER | 54.86s | 7 | | 5. Tetyana Tereshchuk-Antipova |  UKR | 54.94s | 6 | | 6. Silvia Rieger | GER | 55.01s | 1 | | 7. Ionela Tirlea |  ROM | 55.46s | 8 | | 8. Natalya Torshina |  KZK | 56.75s | 2 |
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| Semi 1 17:05 | time | L | | 1. Tonja Buford-Bailey | USA | 55.30s | 4 | | 2. Tetyana Tereshchuk-Antipova | UKR | 56.09s | 5 | | 3. Natalya Torshina | KZK | 56.52s | 1 | | 4. Heike Meissner | GER | 56.75s | 3 | | 5. Monika Warnicka |  POL | 56.88s | 2 | | 6. Olga M. Nazarova |  RUS | 56.89s | 8 | | 7. Trevaia Williams-Davis | USA | 1:04.84s | 6 | | -. Karen Van Der Veen |  RSA | DQ | 7 |
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| Semi 2 17:12 | time | L | | 1. Kim Batten | USA | 54.15s | 5 | | 2. Deon Hemmings | JAM | 54.33s | 4 | | 3. Silvia Rieger | GER | 55.69s | 3 | | 4. Ionela Tirlea | ROM | 56.21s | 6 | | 5. Omolade Akinremi |  NGR | 57.07s | 7 | | 6. Gudrun Arnardottir |  ISL | 57.29s | 8 | | 7. Irina Lenskaya | UKR | 57.33s | 1 | | -. Tatyana Ledovskaya |  BLR | DQ | 2 |
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| Heat 1 16:45 | time | L | | 1. Tonja Buford-Bailey | USA | 55.15s | 3 | | 2. Tetyana Tereshchuk-Antipova | UKR | 56.16s | 2 | | 3. Natalya Torshina | KZK | 56.23s | 5 | | 4. Monika Warnicka | POL | 56.88s | 8 | | 5. Olga M. Nazarova | RUS | 57.64s | 6 | | 6. Louise Fraser |  GBR | 57.99s | 7 | | 7. Asa Carlsson |  SWE | 58.42s | 4 |
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| Heat 2 16:51 | time | L | | 1. Kim Batten | USA | 55.71s | 3 | | 2. Ionela Tirlea | ROM | 58.47s | 4 | | 3. Gudrun Arnardottir | ISL | 58.57s | 8 | | 4. Zhanna Sokolova |  TJK | 1:13.16 | 5 | | -. Pei-Chin Hsu |  TPE | DQ | 2 | | -. Tatyana Kurochkina | BLR | DQ | 6 | | -. Rosey Edeh |  CAN | DNS | 7 |
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| Heat 3 16:57 | time | L | | 1. Deon Hemmings | JAM | 54.72s | 3 | | 2. Silvia Rieger | GER | 55.75s | 6 | | 3. Tatyana Ledovskaya | BLR | 56.03s | 4 | | 4. Omolade Akinremi | NGR | 56.46s | 5 | | 5. Miriam Alonso |  ESP | 58.36s | 2 | | -. Nezha Bidouane |  MAR | DQ | 7 |
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| Heat 4 17:03 | time | L | | 1. Heike Meissner | GER | 55.95s | 6 | | 2. Trevaia Williams-Davis | USA | 55.98s | 7 | | 3. Karen Der Van Veen | RSA | 56.32s | 5 | | 4. Irina Lenskaya | UKR | 57.52s | 3 | | 5. Debbie-Ann Parris | JAM | 57.83s | 2 | | 6. Marie Womplou |  CIV | 58.67s | 4 |
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