European Athletics Championships 1978/200 m men

12th European Athletics Championships
discipline	Men's 200-meter run
city	Prague , Czechoslovakia today Czech Republic
Stadion	Evžena Rošického Stadium
Attendees	26 athletes from 15 countries
Competition phase	August 31st (preliminary / semi-finals) September 1st (final)
Medalist
gold	Pietro Mennea ( URS )
silver	Olaf Prenzler ( GDR )
bronze	Peter Muster ( SUI )

The stadium Evžena Rošického of Prague
in 2009

The 200-meter race of the men at the 1978 European Athletics Championships was on 31 August and 1 September 1978 at the Stadium Evžena Rošického of Prague held.

The European champion was the Italian 100 meter winner Pietro Mennea , who had become vice European champion over 100 meters and European champion over 200 meters in 1974 . Second place went to the GDR sprinter Olaf Prenzler . Bronze went to the Swiss Peter Muster .

Records

Existing records

World record	19.83 s	Tommie Smith	Olympic Games Mexico City , Mexico	October 16, 1968
European record	20.00 s	Valery Borsov	Olympic Games Munich , Federal Republic of Germany (now Germany )	4th September 1972
Championship record	20.31 s		EM Helsinki , Finland	August 13, 1971

Record improvement

European champion Pietro Mennea improved the existing championship record in the final on September 1st by 15 hundredths of a second to 20.16 s.  

Preliminary round

August 31, 1978

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

Forward 1

Lambert Micha, over 100 meters in the semi-finals, was eliminated as eighth of his heat

Wind: +0.5 m / s

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)
1	Pietro Mennea	Italy	20.70
2	Leszek Dunecki	Poland	21.01
3	Dragan Zaric	Yugoslavia	21.13 SB
4th	David Jenkins	Great Britain	21.16 SB
5	Roland Bombardella	Luxembourg	21.17
6th	Lambert Micha	Belgium	21.36 SB

Forward 2

Wind: −1.5 m / s

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)
1	Alexander Aksinin	Soviet Union	20.97
2	Joseph Arame	France	21.32
3	Antti Rajamäki	Finland	21.34
4th	Klaus Thiele	GDR	21.36
5	Luděk Bohman	Czechoslovakia	21.39 SB
6th	Mike Bayle	Luxembourg	21.48 PB
7th	Vilmundur Vilhjalmsson	Iceland	21.80 PB

Forward 3

Wind: −0.3 m / s

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)
1	Pascal Barré	France	20.78
2	Volodymyr Ihnatenko	Soviet Union	20.98
3	Luis Sarria	Spain	21.18 SB
4th	Martin Pelach	Czechoslovakia	21.48 PB
5	Pavel Pavlov	Bulgaria	21.50 SB
DNF	Renno Roelandt	Belgium

Forward 4

Wind: +0.2 m / s

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)
1	Zenon Licznerski	Poland	20.82
2	Vladimir Ivanov	Bulgaria	20.96
3	Olaf Prenzler	GDR	20.97
4th	Peter Muster	Switzerland	21.04
5	Trevor Hoyte	Great Britain	21.24 SB
6th	Patrick Barré	France	21.27 SB
7th	Marian Kralik	Czechoslovakia	21.47 PB

Semifinals

August 31, 1978 clock

In the two semi-finals, the first ver. Athletes - highlighted in light blue - qualified for the final.

Run 1

Wind: −0.2 m / s

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)
1	Pietro Mennea	Italy	20.40
2	Peter Muster	Switzerland	20.63 SB
3	Leszek Dunecki	Poland	20.64 SB
4th	Olaf Prenzler	GDR	20.69
5	Volodymyr Ihnatenko	Soviet Union	20.74 PB
6th	Joseph Arame	France	21.08 SB
7th	Antti Rajamäki	Finland	21.19 SB
8th	Martin Pelach	Czechoslovakia	21.59

Run 2

Wind: ± 0.0 m / s

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)
1	Pascal Barré	France	20.96
2	Vladimir Ivanov	Bulgaria	20.96
3	Alexander Aksinin	Soviet Union	21.08
4th	Zenon Licznerski	Poland	21.10
5	Luis Sarria	Spain	21.24
6th	Dragan Zaric	Yugoslavia	21.28
7th	David Jenkins	Great Britain	21.59
DNF	Klaus Thiele	GDR

final

September 1, 1978, 6:30 p.m.

Wind: −0.2 m / s

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)
1	Pietro Mennea	Italy	20.16 CR
2	Olaf Prenzler	GDR	20.61 SB
3	Peter Muster	Switzerland	20.64
4th	Leszek Dunecki	Poland	20.68
5	Pascal Barré	France	20.70 SB
6th	Zenon Licznerski	Poland	20.74
7th	Alexander Aksinin	Soviet Union	20.87 SB
8th	Vladimir Ivanov	Bulgaria	20.92

• 

  Double European champion over 100 and 200 meters Pietro Mennea (here in 2016) - his greatest success: 1980 Olympic gold over 200 meters

• 

  Leszek Dunecki finished fourth - he had reached the semi-finals over 100 meters

Web links

• European Athletics Championships - Prague 1978 from european-athletics.org, accessed July 26, 2019
• European Championship 1978 Prague, Men 200m on todor66.com, accessed July 26, 2019
• Track and Field Statistics, EM 1978 on trackfield.brinkster.net, accessed July 26, 2019
• European Athletics Championships Zurich 2014 - Statistics Handbook , Men 200m European Championship 1974 Rome, p. 428, Spanish / English (PDF, 13,363 kB) at european-athletics.org, accessed on July 26, 2019
• Results of all European Athletics Championships - 1978, 200 m men on sportschau.de, accessed on July 26, 2019
• 12th European Athletics Championships 1978 in Prague, Czechoslovakia from ifosta.de, accessed on July 26, 2019

References and comments

1. ↑ IAAF world records. 200m men , accessed July 26, 2019
2. ↑ Progression of the European Outdoor Records, 200 m Men , Spanish / English, p. 9 (PDF, 271 kB), accessed on July 26, 2019