Inside the stadium, Alina Ivanova of the Unified Team and Chen Yueling of China were locked in a tight battle. With 200 metres to go, Ivanova accelerated, and began sprinting for what looked like would be a gold/bronze combination for the former Soviet athletes as Chen maintained her pace to stay ahead of Yelena Nikolayeva and Chen's teammate Li Chunxiu.
Ivanova crossed the finish line in first, but her final sprint saw her confronted by officials and disqualified; in the midst of this, Ileana Salvador of Italy sprinted past Li at the line, and she too was disqualified.
This gave Chen the gold medal and Li the bronze, while Chen also took the inaugural Olympic record.