Inge Helten

Inge Helten
nation	Germany
birthday	31st December 1950 (age 69)
place of birth	Westum , today Sinzig ,  Rhineland-Palatinate
size	171 cm
Weight	58 kg
Career
discipline	100-meter run , 4 x 100-meter relay
society	DJK Andernach , OSC Dortmund
status	resigned
End of career	1976
Medal table
Olympic games 0 × 1 × 1 × European championships 1 × 1 × 0 ×
European championships gold  1971 Helsinki 43.3 s ER silver  1974 Rome 42.75 s NO  Olympic games silver  1976 Montreal 42.59 s bronze  1976 Montreal 11.17 s
last change: September 4, 2019

Inge Helten (born December 31, 1950 in Westum , today Sinzig , in Rhineland-Palatinate ) is a former German athlete who was one of the world's best 100-meter runners in the 1970s, set the world record in 1976 and shortly afterwards at the Olympic Playing in Montreal that same year won silver and bronze .

Career

Inge Helten started for the DJK Andernach in the neighborhood of her hometown until the end of 1973 and already achieved world-class times for it at the age of 20. With the national relay she won the gold medal at the European Championships in Helsinki in a new European record time of 43.3 seconds, ahead of the GDR team . In the final, she met the later Olympic champion Renate Stecher , who, like her, ran in second position on the back straight. Stecher had won the title in the individual race four days earlier , where Helten was only four hundredths behind without a medal and had to make do with the unpleasant fourth place behind her relay partners Ingrid Mickler-Becker and Elfgard Schittenhelm in 11.55 s.

One month later in Bonn, with hand-stopped 11.1 seconds, she even missed Renate Stecher's world record by just a tenth of a second , which remains a club record for the DJK to this day. In winter she then moved from Andernach to the larger top club OSC Dortmund .

Despite her previous achievements, she was not nominated for participation in the Munich Games in the 1972 Olympic year . There Ingrid Mickler cleared the home straight for Heide Rosendahl and ran the back straight instead of Helten.

Two years later at the European Championships in Rome in 1974 she was back in the relay team, as in 1971, after Mickler and Rosendahl had ended their careers, and ran her position on the home straight while Annegret Kroniger took the back straight. Despite the new West German record in 42.75 s, they were defeated in the final of the GDR relay, which set a new world record in 42.51 s. Renate Stecher ran differently than in Munich, where she was defeated by Rosendahl, as in 1971 on the back straight, but this time not against Helten. In the 100 meter individual race , Helten did not reach the final and was eliminated in 11.65 s like teammate Schittenhelm in the second semi-final.

In 1976, with the new world record time of 11.04 s in June and the individual Olympic medal in the 100 meter final, she achieved two crowning highlights of her athletic career. She just had to let Renate Stecher go first and, as so often, Annegret Richter , to whom she was always defeated in important races and who not only won the 100 meters here, but also beat the young world record in the semi-finals in 11.01 s and also took silver over 200 meters. At the end of the Games, Helten and Richter also won the silver medal together when they were only barely defeated by the GDR in 42.59 s in the season finale , which set a new Olympic record in 42.55 s . While Kroniger crossed the finish line in fourth place, unlike in 1974, Helten met Stecher on the back straight as in 1971. Inge Helten ended her sports career in the same year.

On April 14, 1972, she was awarded the Silver Laurel Leaf for her athletic achievements.

In her active days she was 1.71 m tall and weighed 58 kg.

successes

International major tournament	Competition placements
European Championships 1971	Fourth place in the 100-meter run in officially 11.6 s ( el. 11.55 s) First place over 4 x 100 meters in officially 43.3 s ( el. 43.28) with Elfgard Schittenhelm , Annegret Irrgang 1 and Ingrid Mickler-Becker
European Championships 1974	Second place over 4 x 100 meters in 42.75 s with Elfgard Schittenhelm , Annegret Kroniger and Annegret Richter
1976 Olympic Games	Third place in the 100-meter run in 11.17 s Fifth place in the 200-meter run in 22.68 s Second place over 4 x 100 meters in 42.59 with Elvira Possekel , Annegret Richter and Annegret Kroniger
1 Annegret Richter's maiden name

Top performances

discipline	Best performance U21	date and location	Best performance	date and location
100 meters	11.1 s	September 11, 1971, Bonn	WR  11.04 s	June 13, 1976, Fürth
200 metres	23.1 s	August 29, 1971, Augsburg	22.68 s	July 28, 1976, Montreal
Long jump	6.08 m	September 6, 1970, Höhr-Grenzhausen	?
4 x 100 meter relay , national	ER  43.28 s	August 15, 1971, Helsinki	42.59 s	July 31, 1976, Montreal
4 x 100 meter relay , club	45.6 s	July 11, 1971, Stuttgart	?
Sources: Eternal best lists LG Rhein-Wied and Eternal best lists DLV

Individual evidence

1. ↑ 100 m women. Eternal leaderboard discipline. LG Rhein-Wied , accessed on September 4, 2019 .  
2. ↑ Sports report of the federal government of September 29, 1973 to the Bundestag - printed matter 7/1040 - page 66
3. ↑ Eternal leaderboard. Overview page with list of links. LG Rhein-Wied , accessed on September 4, 2019 .  
4. ^ "Eternal" list of the best in German athletics. (PDF) PDF. DLV , August 19, 2019, accessed on September 4, 2019 .