1997 World Championships in Athletics – Women's 800 metres

First 2 of each Heat (Q) and the next 6 fastest (q) qualified for the semifinals.

Rank	Heat	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	5	Yelena Afanasyeva	Russia	2:00.12	Q
2	4	Maria Mutola	Mozambique	2:00.88	Q
3	5	Luciana Mendes	Brazil	2:00.89	Q
4	3	Letitia Vriesde	Suriname	2:00.92	Q
5	3	Stella Jongmans	Netherlands	2:01.06	Q
6	4	Joetta Clark	United States	2:01.15	Q
7	1	Ludmila Formanová	Czech Republic	2:01.46	Q
8	4	Petya Strashilova	Bulgaria	2:01.49	q
9	4	Nouria Merah-Benida	Algeria	2:01.49	q
10	2	Ana Fidelia Quirot	Cuba	2:01.56	Q
10	5	Hasna Benhassi	Morocco	2:01.56	q
12	5	Małgorzata Rydz	Poland	2:01.68	q
13	3	Lyubov Kiryukhina-Tsyoma	Russia	2:01.87	q
14	2	Yelena Martson-Buzhenko	Ukraine	2:02.00	Q
15	2	Toni Hodgkinson	New Zealand	2:02.21	q
16	2	Rosa Kutty	India	2:02.22
17	1	Natalya Dukhnova	Belarus	2:02.39	Q
18	4	Stephanie Graf	Austria	2:02.52
19	4	Charmaine Crooks	Canada	2:02.84
20	1	Linda Kisabaka	Germany	2:03.22
21	3	Kathy Harris-Rounds	United States	2:03.33
22	3	Dawn Williams-Sewer	Dominica	2:03.35
23	1	Julia Sakara	Zimbabwe	2:03.55
24	5	Irina Nedelenko-Lishchinskaya	Ukraine	2:03.56
25	5	Monika Ronnholm-Kinnunen	Finland	2:04.11
26	1	Oznur Dursun	Turkey	2:04.62
27	2	Jill Stamison-Mcmullen	United States	2:06.16
28	2	Theoni Kostopoulou	Greece	2:07.32
29	1	Léontine Tsiba	Republic of the Congo	2:07.34	NR
30	2	Jolanda Čeplak	Slovenia	2:10.97
31	2	Adama Njie	Gambia	2:13.50
32	5	Monica Randi	San Marino	2:16.00
33	1	Abok Shol	Sudan	2:16.74	NR
34	3	Natalia Al Farran	Lebanon	2:18.11	PB
35	3	Donata Mutegwamaso	Rwanda	2:25.07
36	4	Yaznee Nasheeda	Maldives	2:36.18
	1	Malin Ewerlöf	Sweden	DNS
	4	Alberta Cape	Guinea-Bissau	DNS

First 4 of each Semifinal qualified directly (Q) for the final.

Rank	Heat	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	1	Maria Mutola	Mozambique	1:57.49	Q, SB
2	1	Yelena Afanasyeva	Russia	1:59.05	Q
3	1	Stella Jongmans	Netherlands	1:59.32	Q, SB
4	1	Joetta Clark	United States	1:59.34	Q
5	2	Ana Fidelia Quirot	Cuba	1:59.37	Q
6	1	Luciana Mendes	Brazil	1:59.45
7	2	Letitia Vriesde	Suriname	1:59.62	Q
8	2	Ludmila Formanova	Czech Republic	1:59.71	Q
9	2	Toni Hodgkinson	New Zealand	2:00.25	Q
10	2	Natalya Dukhnova	Belarus	2:00.91
11	2	Nouria Merah-Benida	Algeria	2:01.08
12	2	Petya Strashilova	Bulgaria	2:01.44
13	1	Yelena Martson-Buzhenko	Ukraine	2:02.62
14	1	Hasna Benhassi	Morocco	2:03.70
15	1	Małgorzata Rydz	Poland	2:05.00
	2	Lyubov Kiryukhina-Tsyoma	Russia	DQ (DNF)	Doping