European Athletics Championships 1969/100 m hurdles for women

9th European Athletics Championships
discipline	100-meter hurdles for women
city	Athens
Stadion	Karaiskakis Stadium
Participants	18 athletes from 12 countries
Competition phase	September 18th (preliminary) September 19th (semi-finals) September 20th (final)
Medalists
gold	Karin Balzer ( GDR )
silver	Bärbel Podeswa ( GDR )
bronze	Teresa Nowak ( POL )

The Athens Karaiskakis Stadium in 2009

The women's 100-meter hurdles at the European Athletics Championships in 1969 was held from September 18 to 20, 1969 in the Karaiskakis Stadium in Athens .

The competition in this form was on the program of a major international championship for the first time and replaced the 80-meter hurdles that had been held up until then . This change was made primarily to better accommodate the stride length of the athletes between the hurdles.

The hurdlers from the GDR recorded a double victory here. It was won by the European champion from 1966 and Olympic champion from 1964 in the 80 meter hurdles Karin Balzer , who was also the holder of the world record in the 100 meter hurdles. Second place went to Bärbel Podeswa . Bronze went to Teresa Nowak from Poland.

Existing records

World record	12.9 s	Karin Balzer	East Berlin (today Berlin ), GDR (today | Germany )	5th September 1969
European record
EM record	Competition in this form for the first time in the program of the European Championships

The runners had a hard time setting good times. In all races they encountered headwinds of varying strength, sometimes violent. The following times were run as the first championship records:

13.7 s	Lia Chitrina	1. Forward	18th September 1969
	Teresa Nowak	1st semifinals	19th September 1969
	Bärbel Podeswa
	Lia Chitrina
13.5 s	Karin Balzer	2nd semifinals
13.3 s		final	20th September 1969

Preliminary round

September 18, 1969, 4:20 pm

The preliminary round was held in four runs. The first four athletes per run - highlighted in light blue - qualified for the semi-finals.

It is not entirely understandable why the organizers even carried out these four preliminary runs with the small number of eighteen participants. Only two athletes were eliminated. In two races, the athletes only had to reach the finish in order to be in the semi-finals. Instead, three prelims with five starters each would have been possible, the first two runners of each race and two other fastest athletes would then have contested the final.

Forward 1

Wind: −1.7 m / s

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)
1	Lia Chitrina	Soviet Union	13.7 CR
2	Teresa Sukniewicz	Poland	13.9
3	Jeanne Schoebel	France	14.1
4th	Magaly Vettorazzo	Italy	14.7

Forward 2

Wind: −2.6 m / s

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)
1	Teresa Nowak	Poland	14.1
2	Milena Piackova	Czechoslovakia	14.3
3	Sirkka Norrlund	Finland	14.3
4th	Regina Höfer	GDR	14.4
5	Anne Van Rensbergen	Belgium	14.6
DNS	Meta antennas	Switzerland

Forward 3

Wind: -4.1 m / s

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)
1	Bärbel Podeswa	GDR	14.0
2	Susan Hayward	Great Britain	14.3
3	Eva Kucmanová	Czechoslovakia	14.7
4th	Emina Pilav	Yugoslavia	14.9
5	Charoula Sasagianni	Greece	15.9

Forward 4

Wind: −3.1 m / s

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)
1	Karin Balzer	GDR	14.0
2	Marlène Canguio	France	14.4
3	Christine Perera	Great Britain	14.4
4th	Gun Olsson	Sweden	14.7

Semifinals

September 19, 1969, 5:20 pm

In each of the two semi-finals, the first four athletes - highlighted in light blue - qualified for the final.

Run 1

Wind: −1.9 m / s

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)
1	Teresa Nowak	Poland	13.7 CRe
2	Bärbel Podeswa	GDR	13.7 CRe
3	Lia Chitrina	Soviet Union	13.7 CRe
4th	Christine Perera	Great Britain	14.1
5	Marlène Canguio	France	14.1
6th	Milena Piackova	Czechoslovakia	14.5
7th	Emina Pilav	Yugoslavia	14.8
DNS	Gun Olsson	Sweden

Jeanne Schoebel (left) missed the final by just one place

Run 2

Wind: −1.7 m / s

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)
1	Karin Balzer	GDR	13.5 CR
2	Regina Höfer	GDR	13.8
3	Teresa Sukniewicz	Poland	14.0
4th	Sirkka Norrlund	Finland	14.0
5	Jeanne Schoebel	France	14.1
6th	Susan Hayward	Great Britain	14.1
7th	Magaly Vettorazzo	Italy	14.8
DNS	Eva Kucmanová	Czechoslovakia

The world record holder and Karin Balzer, who has been successful in the shorter distance so far, became the first female European champion on the new route

final

20th September 1969

Wind: −1.0 m / s

space	Surname	nation	Official time (s) hand-stopped	Unofficial time (s) electronically
1	Karin Balzer	GDR	13.3 CR	13.29
2	Bärbel Podeswa	GDR	13.6 PB	13.68
3	Teresa Nowak	Poland	13.7 SB	13.77
4th	Lia Chitrina	Soviet Union	13.8 PB	13.86
5	Teresa Sukniewicz	Poland	13.8 SB	13.89
6th	Regina Höfer	GDR	13.9 PB	13.96
7th	Christine Perera	Great Britain	14.0 PB	14.03
8th	Sirkka Norrlund	Finland	14.1 SB	14.16

Web links

• European Athletics Championships - Athens 1969 from european-athletics.org, accessed June 15, 2019
• Women 100m Hurdles European Championship 1969 Athens on todor66.com, accessed on June 15, 2019
• Track and Field Statistics, EM 1969 from trackfield.brinkster.net, accessed June 15, 2019
• European Athletics Championships Zurich 2014 - Statistics Handbook , Women 100m Hurdles European Championship 1969 Athens, p. 410 (PDF, 13,363 kB), in English at european-athletics.org, accessed on June 15, 2019
• Results of all European Athletics Championships - 1969, 100 m hurdles women on sportschau.de, accessed on June 15, 2019
• 9th European Athletics Championships 1969 in Athens, Greece from ifosta.de, accessed on June 15, 2019

Video

800F

• Lillian Board, 1969 , published December 18, 2012 on youtube.com, accessed June 6, 2019

100HürF

• 100m Hurdles 1969 European Championship Athens Karin Balzer , published January 6, 2010 on youtube.com, accessed June 6, 2019

References and comments

1. ↑ IAAF world records. 400m women , accessed June 15, 2019