European Athletics Championships 1974/400 m women

11th European Athletics Championships
discipline	400-meter run for women
city	Rome
Stadion	Olympic Stadium
Participants	23 athletes from 14 countries
Competition phase	September 2nd (preliminary) September 3rd (semi-finals) September 4th (final)
Medalists
gold	Riitta Salin ( FIN )
silver	Ellen Streidt ( GDR )
bronze	Rita Wilden ( FRG )

The Olympic Stadium of Rome in 2009

The 400-meter run for women at the 1974 European Athletics Championships was held from September 2 to 4, 1974 in the Olympic Stadium in Rome .

European champion was Riitta Salin from Finland . In the final she set a new electronically measured European record. Ellen Streidt , formerly Ellen Strophal, from the GDR won the silver medal. Bronze went to the Federal German Olympic runner-up in 1972 Rita Wilden .

Records

Preliminary remark:
In these years there was a dichotomy in terms of best performances and records. Hand-stopped and electronically determined services were performed side by side. The official times were usually given in tenths of a second, which were rounded if electronic measurements were available. However, the record given in tenths of a second became less and less important. From 1977 the juxtaposition of the best times came to an end, from then on only the electronically measured value given in hundredths of a second was listed as a record.

Official records - given in tenths of a second

Existing records

World record	49.9 s	Irena Szewińska	Warsaw , Poland	June 22, 1974
European record
Championship record	51.7 s	Nicole Duclos	EM Athens , Greece	18th September 1969
		Colette Besson

Record improvement

European champion Riitta Salin improved the existing EM record on September 4th by six tenths of a second to 51.1 s.  

Electronically measured records

Existing records

World record	51.02 s	Marilyn Neufville	Edinburgh , UK	July 23, 1970
European record	50.98 s	Jelica Pavličić	Sofia , Bulgaria	3rd August 1974
Championship record	51.77 s	Nicole Duclos	EM Athens , Greece	18th September 1969

European champion Riitta Salin improved the existing EM record in the final on September 4th by 63 hundredths of a second to 51.14 s. In doing so, it also set a new European record by electronic standards.  

Note on the stated best performances

The best performances named in the tables refer to electronically measured times.

Preliminary round

2nd September 1974

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

Forward 1

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)
1	Natalia Sokolova	Soviet Union	53.21 SB
2	Jozefína Čerchlanová	Czechoslovakia	53.23
3	Danuta Piecyk	Poland	53.30
4th	Donna Hartley	Great Britain	53.49
5	Dominique Forest	France	55.35 PB

Forward 2

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)
1	Riitta Salin	Finland	51.88
2	Angelika Handt	GDR	52.21
3	Krystyna Kacperczyk	Poland	52.76
4th	Jannette Roscoe	Great Britain	53.28
5	Trudy Wunderink	Netherlands	53.30 PB
6th	Claire Walsh	Ireland	54.14 SB

Forward 3

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)
1	Ellen Streidt	GDR	51.79
2	Rita Wilden	BR Germany	51.91
3	Karoline Beetle	Austria	52.20
4th	Raisin Wallez	Belgium	52.82 NO
5	Ingrīda Barkāne	Soviet Union	53.01
6th	Genowefa Błaszak	Poland	53.34 SB

Forward 4

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)
1	Nadezhda Ilyina	Soviet Union	52.30
2	Verona Bernard	Great Britain	52.46
3	Jelica Pavličić	Yugoslavia	53.11
4th	Pirjo Wilmi	Finland	53.43 SB
5	Karola Claus	BR Germany	54.26 PB
6th	Irén Orosz	Hungary	54.90 SB

Semifinals

September 3, 1974, 5:50 p.m.

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

Run 1

Trudy Wunderink reached the semifinals and was eliminated as eighth of her race

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)
1	Ellen Streidt	GDR	51.40
2	Rita Wilden	BR Germany	51.46
3	Nadezhda Ilyina	Soviet Union	51.65
4th	Jelica Pavličić	Yugoslavia	51.87
5	Krystyna Kacperczyk	Poland	52.07 SB
6th	Jannette Roscoe	Great Britain	52.85 PB
7th	Raisin Wallez	Belgium	53.02
8th	Trudy Wunderink	Netherlands	53.46

Run 2

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)
1	Riitta Salin	Finland	51.46
2	Angelika Handt	GDR	51.67
3	Karoline Beetle	Austria	52.14 NO
4th	Verona Bernard	Great Britain	52.18
5	Ingrīda Barkāne	Soviet Union	52.52 SB
6th	Danuta Piecyk	Poland	52.93 PB
7th	Jozefína Čerchlanová	Czechoslovakia	53.77 SB
8th	Natalia Sokolova	Soviet Union	53.82

final

4th September 1974

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)
1	Riitta Salin	Finland	50.14 ERel
2	Ellen Streidt	GDR	50.69 DR
3	Rita Wilden	BR Germany	50.88 BR
4th	Nadezhda Ilyina	Soviet Union	51.22 NO
5	Angelika Handt	GDR	51.24 PB
6th	Karoline Beetle	Austria	51.77 NO
7th	Verona Bernard	Great Britain	52.62
8th	Jelica Pavličić	Yugoslavia	53.01

Web links

• European Athletics Championships - Rome 1974 from european-athletics.org, accessed July 20, 2019
• European Championship 1974 Rome, Women 400m on todor66.com, accessed July 20, 2019
• Track and Field Statistics, EM 1974 on trackfield.brinkster.net, accessed July 20, 2019
• European Athletics Championships Zurich 2014 - Statistics Handbook , Women 400m European Championship 1974 Rome, p. 425, Spanish / English (PDF, 13,363 kB) at european-athletics.org, accessed on July 20, 2019
• Results of all European Athletics Championships - 1974, 400 m women on sportschau.de, accessed on July 20, 2019
• 11th European Athletics Championships 1974 in Rome, Italy from ifosta.de, accessed on July 20, 2019

References and comments

1. ↑ ^{a b} IAAF world records. 400m women , accessed July 20, 2019
2. ↑ Marilyn Neufville in the database of Sports-Reference (English) , accessed on July 2, 2019
3. ↑ Progression of the European Outdoor Records, 400 m Women , p. 51, Spanish / English (PDF, 271 kB), accessed on July 20, 2019