European Athletics Championships 1969/400 m women

9th European Athletics Championships
discipline	400-meter run for women
city	Athens
Stadion	Karaiskakis Stadium
Participants	20 athletes from 12 countries
Competition phase	September 16 (preliminary) September 17 (semi-finals) September 18 (final)
Medalists
gold	Nicole Duclos ( FRA )
silver	Colette Besson ( FRA )
bronze	Maria Sykora ( AUT )

The Athens Karaiskakis Stadium in 2009

The women's 400-meter run at the European Athletics Championships in 1969 was held from September 16 to 18, 1969 at the Karaiskakis Stadium in Athens .

In this competition there was a double victory for the French runners. The European champion was Nicole Duclos , who won at the same time and surprisingly before the 1968 Olympic champion Colette Besson . Both athletes set a new world record. Bronze went to the Austrian Maria Sykora .

Records

Existing records

World record	51.9 s	Shin Kim-dan	Pyongyang , North Korea	October 23, 1962
European record	52.0 s	Colette Besson	OS Mexico City , Mexico	October 16, 1968
		Nicole Duclos	Stuttgart , Federal Republic of Germany today ( Germany )	July 31, 1969
Championship record	52.9 s	Anna Chmelková	EM Budapest , Hungary	September 1, 1966

Record improvement

In the final on September 18, both the new European Champion Nicole Duclos and the second-placed Colette Besson improved the existing EM record by 1.2 seconds to 51.7 seconds. Both set a new world record at the same time.   

Preliminary round

September 16, 1969, 7:10 p.m.

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

Five participants each started in the two preliminary runs, two and three. Why the organizers let six athletes compete in the first race and four in the fourth race is hard to understand. Two athletes were eliminated in preliminary run one, while in the fourth preliminary run all starters were able to run in gentle gear because they were automatically qualified for the next round when they reached the finish line.

Forward 1

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)
1	Nicole Duclos	France	53.2
2	Karin Lundgren	Sweden	54.5
3	Donata Govoni	Italy	54.6
4th	Rosemary Stirling	Great Britain	54.7
5	Anna Dundare	Soviet Union	55.2

Forward 2

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)
1	Colette Besson	France	52.1
2	Maria Sykora	Austria	53.6
3	Janet Simpson	Great Britain	54.1
4th	Hannelore Middeke	GDR	54.2
5	Elisabeth Randerz	Sweden	55.5
6th	Eeva Haimi	Finland	55.8

Forward 3

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)
1	Jennifer Pawsey	Great Britain	54.8
2	Eliane Jacq	France	54.8
3	Olga Klein	Soviet Union	55.0
4th	Krystyna Hryniewicka	Poland	55.4
5	Birgitte Jennes	Denmark	55.5

Forward 4

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)
1	Taissija Kovalevskaya	Soviet Union	55.0
2	Berit Berthelsen	Norway	55.2
3	Uschi Meyer	Switzerland	55.5
4th	Elżbieta Skowrońska	Poland	55.6

Semifinals

September 17, 1969, 5:40 pm

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

Run 1

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)
1	Colette Besson	France	52.2
2	Hannelore Middeke	GDR	53.3
3	Janet Simpson	Great Britain	53.6
4th	Donata Govoni	Italy	53.7
5	Taissija Kovalevskaya	Soviet Union	54.1
6th	Jennifer Pawsey	Great Britain	54.8
7th	Elżbieta Skowrońska	Poland	55.3
DNS	Berit Berthelsen	Norway

Run 2

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)
1	Maria Sykora	Austria	53.2
2	Nicole Duclos	France	53.2
3	Karin Lundgren	Sweden	54.2
4th	Rosemary Stirling	Great Britain	54.3
5	Krystyna Hryniewicka	Poland	54.7
6th	Eliane Jacq	France	54.7
7th	Uschi Meyer	Switzerland	54.9
8th	Olga Klein	Soviet Union	56.3

Vice European champion Colette Besson, Olympic champion from 1968 and the real favorite of this race, set a world record and was still beaten

final

September 18, 1969, 8:20 pm

space	Surname	nation	Official time (s) hand-stopped	Unofficial time (s) electronically
1	Nicole Duclos	France	51.7 WR	51.77
2	Colette Besson	France	51.7 WR	51.79
3	Maria Sykora	Austria	53.0	k. A.
4th	Hannelore Middeke	GDR	53.1
5	Karin Lundgren	Sweden	53.4
6th	Donata Govoni	Italy	53.6
7th	Janet Simpson	Great Britain	53.8
8th	Rosemary Stirling	Great Britain	54.6

Web links

• European Athletics Championships - Athens 1969 from european-athletics.org, accessed June 7, 2019
• Women 400m European Championship 1969 Athens on todor66.com, accessed June 7, 2019
• Track and Field Statistics, EM 1969 on trackfield.brinkster.net, accessed June 7, 2019
• European Athletics Championships Zurich 2014 - Statistics Handbook , Women 400m European Championship 1969 Athens, p. 410 (PDF, 13,363 kB), in English at european-athletics.org, accessed on June 7, 2019
• Results of all European Athletics Championships - 1969, 400 m women on sportschau.de, accessed on June 7, 2019
• 9th European Athletics Championships 1969 in Athens, Greece from ifosta.de, accessed on June 7, 2019

References and comments

1. ↑ IAAF world records. 400m women , accessed June 14, 2019
2. ↑ Progression of the European Outdoor Records, 400 m Women , p. 51 (PDF, 271 kB), accessed on June 14, 2019 (Spanish / English)