1983 World Championships in Athletics

1st World Championships in Athletics
1st World Championships in Athletics
Host cityHelsinki, Finland
Nations153
Athletes1,355
Events41
Dates7–14 August 1983
Opened byPresident Mauno Koivisto
Main venueHelsinki Olympic Stadium

The 1st World Championships in Athletics (Finnish: Yleisurheilun maailmanmestaruuskilpailut 1983; Swedish: Världsmästerskapen i friidrott 1983) were run under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations and were held at the Olympic Stadium in Helsinki, Finland between 7 and 14 August 1983.

Summary

The championships at Helsinki Olympic Stadium, August 1983
Carl Lewis at the championships

The overall medal table was a closely contested affair. East Germany took the most gold medals (10) over the first championships and finished with a total of 22 medals. The United States had the next largest number of golds, with eight, and also had the greatest overall medal haul, having won 24 medals altogether. The Soviet Union won one more medal than the East Germans and had six golds, although almost half of their podium finishers were bronze medalists. Twenty-five nations reached the medal tally at the inaugural competition, with all six continents being represented. During the early 1980s this was the top venue in which Soviet Bloc athletes competed against American athletes due to the American-led boycott of the 1980 Olympics in Moscow and the retaliatory Soviet Bloc boycott of the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles.

Carl Lewis won both the 100 metres and the long jump, and finished the competition by anchoring the 4×100 metres relay team to a world record time, along with the 200 metres champion Calvin Smith, and bronze medallists Emmit King and Willie Gault. Jarmila Kratochvílová dominated the 400 metres and 800 metres events, setting a world record of 47.99 seconds. Mary Decker enjoyed her best competition performance, taking the golds in the women's 1500 metres and 3000 metres. Other prominent athletes included Marita Koch, who won the 200 m and both relay golds, as well as the 100 m silver medal. Sergey Bubka won the first of his six consecutive World Championship gold medals in the pole vault.

Men's results

Track

postage stamp from Finland issued in 1983

1983 | 1987 | 1991 | 1993 | 1995

Games Gold Silver Bronze
100 m
details
Carl Lewis
 United States
10.07 Calvin Smith
 United States
10.21 Emmit King
 United States
10.24
200 m
details
Calvin Smith
 United States
20.14 Elliott Quow
 United States
20.41 Pietro Mennea
 Italy
20.51
400 m
details
Bert Cameron
 Jamaica
45.05 Michael Franks
 United States
45.22 Sunder Nix
 United States
45.24
800 m
details
Willi Wülbeck
 West Germany
1:43.65 Rob Druppers
 Netherlands
1:44.20 Joaquim Cruz
 Brazil
1:44.27
1,500 m
details
Steve Cram
 Great Britain
3:41.59 Steve Scott
 United States
3:41.87 Saïd Aouita
 Morocco
3:42.02
5,000 m
details
Eamonn Coghlan
 Ireland
13:28.53 Werner Schildhauer
 East Germany
13:30.20 Martti Vainio
 Finland
13:30.34
10,000 m
details
Alberto Cova
 Italy
28:01.04 Werner Schildhauer
 East Germany
28:01.18 Hansjörg Kunze
 East Germany
28:01.26
Marathon
details
Rob de Castella
 Australia
2:10:03 Kebede Balcha
 Ethiopia
2:10:27 Waldemar Cierpinski
 East Germany
2:10:37
110 m hurdles
details
Greg Foster
 United States
13.42 Arto Bryggare
 Finland
13.46 Willie Gault
 United States
13.48
400 m hurdles
details
Edwin Moses
 United States
47.50 Harald Schmid
 West Germany
48.61 Aleksandr Kharlov
 Soviet Union
49.03
3,000 m st.
details
Patriz Ilg
 West Germany
8:15.06 Bogusław Mamiński
 Poland
8:17.03 Colin Reitz
 Great Britain
8:17.75
20 km walk
details
Ernesto Canto
 Mexico
1:20:49 Jozef Pribilinec
 Czechoslovakia
1:20:59 Yevgeniy Yevsyukov
 Soviet Union
1:21:08
50 km walk
details
Ronald Weigel
 East Germany
3:43:08 José Marín
 Spain
3:46:32 Sergey Yung
 Soviet Union
3:49:03
4 × 100 m relay
details
 United States (USA)
Emmit King
Willie Gault
Calvin Smith
Carl Lewis
37.86
(WR)
 Italy (ITA)
Stefano Tilli
Carlo Simionato
Pierfrancesco Pavoni
Pietro Mennea
38.37
(NR)
 Soviet Union (URS)
Andrey Prokofyev
Nikolay Sidorov
Vladimir Muravyov
Viktor Bryzgin
38.41
4 × 400 m relay
details
 Soviet Union (URS)
Sergey Lovachov
Aleksandr Troshchilo
Nikolay Chernetskiy
Viktor Markin
3:00.79  West Germany (FRG)
Erwin Skamrahl
Jörg Vaihinger
Harald Schmid
Hartmut Weber
Martin Weppler*
Edgar Nakladal*
3:01.83  Great Britain (GBR)
Ainsley Bennett
Garry Cook
Todd Bennett
Phil Brown
Kriss Akabusi*
3:03.53
WR world record | AR area record | CR championship record | GR games record | NR national record | OR Olympic record | PB personal best | SB season best | WL world leading (in a given season)

Note: * Indicates athletes who ran in preliminary rounds.

Field

1983 | 1987 | 1991 | 1993 | 1995

Games Gold Silver Bronze
High jump
details
Hennadiy Avdyeyenko
 Soviet Union
2.32 Tyke Peacock
 United States
2.32 Zhu Jianhua
 China
2.29
Pole vault
details
Sergey Bubka
 Soviet Union
5.70 Konstantin Volkov
 Soviet Union
5.60 Atanas Tarev
 Bulgaria
5.60
Long jump
details
Carl Lewis
 United States
8.55 Jason Grimes
 United States
8.29 Mike Conley
 United States
8.12
Triple jump
details
Zdzisław Hoffmann
 Poland
17.42 Willie Banks
 United States
17.18 Ajayi Agbebaku
 Nigeria
17.18
Shot put
details
Edward Sarul
 Poland
21.39 Ulf Timmermann
 East Germany
21.16 Remigius Machura
 Czechoslovakia
20.98
Discus throw
details
Imrich Bugár
 Czechoslovakia
67.72 Luis Delís
 Cuba
67.36 Géjza Valent
 Czechoslovakia
66.08
Hammer throw
details
Sergey Litvinov
 Soviet Union
82.68 Yuriy Sedykh
 Soviet Union
80.94 Zdzisław Kwaśny
 Poland
79.42
Javelin throw
details
Detlef Michel
 East Germany
89.48 Tom Petranoff
 United States
85.60 Dainis Kūla
 Soviet Union
85.58
Decathlon
details
Daley Thompson
 Great Britain
8666 Jürgen Hingsen
 West Germany
8561 Siegfried Wentz
 West Germany
8478
WR world record | AR area record | CR championship record | GR games record | NR national record | OR Olympic record | PB personal best | SB season best | WL world leading (in a given season)

Women's results

Track

1983 | 1987 | 1991 | 1993 | 1995

Games Gold Silver Bronze
100 m
details
Marlies Göhr
 East Germany
10.97
(CR)
Marita Koch
 East Germany
11.02 Diane Williams
 United States
11.06
200 m
details
Marita Koch
 East Germany
22.13 Merlene Ottey
 Jamaica
22.19 Kathy Cook
 Great Britain
22.37
400 m
details
Jarmila Kratochvílová
 Czechoslovakia
47.99
(WR)
Taťána Kocembová
 Czechoslovakia
48.59
(PB)
Mariya Pinigina
 Soviet Union
49.19
800 m
details
Jarmila Kratochvílová
 Czechoslovakia
1:54.68 Lyubov Gurina
 Soviet Union
1:56.11 Yekaterina Podkopayeva
 Soviet Union
1:57.58
1,500 m
details
Mary Decker
 United States
4:00.90 Zamira Zaytseva
 Soviet Union
4:01.19 Yekaterina Podkopayeva
 Soviet Union
4:02.25
3,000 m
details
Mary Decker
 United States
8:34.62 Brigitte Kraus
 West Germany
8:35.11 Tatyana Kazankina
 Soviet Union
8:35.13
Marathon
details
Grete Waitz
 Norway
2:28:09 Marianne Dickerson
 United States
2:31:09 Raisa Smekhnova
 Soviet Union
2:31:13
100 m hurdles
details
Bettine Jahn
 East Germany
12.35 Kerstin Knabe
 East Germany
12.42 Ginka Zagorcheva
 Bulgaria
12.62
400 m hurdles
details
Yekaterina Fesenko
 Soviet Union
54.14 Ana Ambrazienė
 Soviet Union
54.15 Ellen Fiedler
 East Germany
54.55
4 × 100 m relay
details
 East Germany (GDR)
Silke Gladisch
Marita Koch
Ingrid Auerswald
Marlies Göhr
41.76  Great Britain (GBR)
Joan Baptiste
Kathy Cook
Beverley Callender
Shirley Thomas
42.71  Jamaica (JAM)
Leleith Hodges
Jacqueline Pusey
Juliet Cuthbert
Merlene Ottey
42.73
4 × 400 m relay
details
 East Germany (GDR)
Kerstin Walther
Sabine Busch
Marita Koch
Dagmar Rübsam
Undine Bremer*
Ellen Fiedler*
3:19.73  Czechoslovakia (TCH)
Taťána Kocembová
Milena Matějkovičová
Zuzana Moravčíková
Jarmila Kratochvílová
3:20.32  Soviet Union (URS)
Yelena Korban
Marina Ivanova
Irina Baskakova
Mariya Pinigina
3:21.16
WR world record | AR area record | CR championship record | GR games record | NR national record | OR Olympic record | PB personal best | SB season best | WL world leading (in a given season)

Note: * Indicates athletes who ran in preliminary rounds.

Field

1983 | 1987 | 1991 | 1993 | 1995

Games Gold Silver Bronze
High jump
details
Tamara Bykova
 Soviet Union
2.01 Ulrike Meyfarth
 West Germany
1.99 Louise Ritter
 United States
1.95
Long jump
details
Heike Daute
 East Germany
7.27 Anişoara Cuşmir
 Romania
7.15 Carol Lewis
 United States
7.04
Shot put
details
Helena Fibingerová
 Czechoslovakia
21.05 Helma Knorscheidt
 East Germany
20.70 Ilona Slupianek
 East Germany
20.56
Discus throw
details
Martina Opitz
 East Germany
68.94 Galina Murasova
 Soviet Union
67.44 Mariya Petkova
 Bulgaria
66.44
Javelin throw
details
Tiina Lillak
 Finland
70.82 Fatima Whitbread
 Great Britain
69.14 Anna Verouli
 Greece
65.72
Heptathlon
details
Ramona Neubert
 East Germany
6714 Sabine Paetz
 East Germany
6662 Anke Vater
 East Germany
6532
WR world record | AR area record | CR championship record | GR games record | NR national record | OR Olympic record | PB personal best | SB season best | WL world leading (in a given season)

Medal table

Marathon bronze medallist and reigning Olympic champion Waldemar Cierpinski (DDR) celebrates with gold medal winner Robert de Castella (AUS).
Source: [1]

See also

  • 1983 in athletics (track and field)

References

  • IAAF

External links

Media related to 1983 World Championships in Athletics at Wikimedia Commons

  • Summary at SVT's open archive
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