European Athletics Championships 1978/400 m women

12th European Athletics Championships
discipline	400-meter run for women
city	Prague , Czechoslovakia today Czech Republic
Stadion	Evžena Rošického Stadium
Participants	25 athletes from 13 countries
Competition phase	August 29th (preliminary) August 30th (semi-finals) August 31st (final)
Medalists
gold	Marita Koch ( GDR )
silver	Christina Brehmer ( GDR )
bronze	Irena Szewińska ( POL )

The stadium Evžena Rošického of Prague
in 2009

The 400-meter race of women in the 1978 European Athletics Championships was from 29 to 30 August 1978 in the stadium Evžena Rošického of Prague held.

In this competition there was a double victory for the runners from the GDR. The European champion was Marita Koch , who improved her own world record in the final and was the first athlete to break the 49-second mark on this route. Silver was won by Christina Brehmer , later Christina Lathan , who came second in the 1976 Olympics . The 1976 Olympic champion and multiple medalist at the Olympic Games and European Championships over 100 and 200 meters and in the long jump, Irena Szewińska , won the bronze medal.

Records

Existing records

World record	49.03 s	Marita Koch	Potsdam , GDR (now Germany )	19th August 1978
European record
EM record	51.14 s	Riitta Salin	EM Rome , Italy	4th September 1974

Record improvement

European champion Marita Koch improved the existing championship record in the final on August 31 by 2.20 seconds to 48.94 seconds. In doing so, she broke her own world record and was the first runner to stay under 49 seconds.  

Preliminary round

August 29, 1978

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

Forward 1

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)
1	Marita Koch	GDR	52.95
2	Irena Szewińska	Poland	53.14
3	Ilona Pál	Hungary	53.42 SB
4th	Patricia Darbonville	France	53.50 PB
5	Raisin Wallez	Belgium	53.99 SB
6th	Anne Aren	Sweden	54.37 PB

Forward 2

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)
1	Christiane Marquardt	GDR	52.12
2	Joslyn Hoyte	Great Britain	52.29 SB
3	Gaby Bussmann	BR Germany	52.92
4th	Jarmila Kratochvílová	Czechoslovakia	53.33 SB
5	Marina Sidorova	Soviet Union	53.72 SB
6th	Yvonne Hannus	Finland	53.98 PB
7th	Ibolya Petrika	Hungary	54.01 PB

Forward 3

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)
1	Christina Brehmer	GDR	51.71
2	Verona Elder	Great Britain	52.64
3	Pirjo Haggman	Finland	52.68
4th	Elke Decker	BR Germany	52.97
5	Catherine Delachanal	France	53.81 PB
6th	Truus van Amstel	Netherlands	54.37 PB

Forward 4

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)
1	Maria Kultschunowa	Soviet Union	51.55
2	Dagmar Fuhrmann	BR Germany	53.45
3	Donna Hartley	Great Britain	53.61
4th	Silvia Schinzel	Austria	53.80
5	Rozalia Halmosi	Hungary	53.93 PB
6th	Eva Rakova	Czechoslovakia	54.00 PB

Semifinals

August 30, 1978

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	Marita Koch	GDR	51.76
2	Maria Kultschunowa	Soviet Union	51.88
3	Donna Hartley	Great Britain	52.14
4th	Pirjo Haggman	Finland	52.24
5	Elke Decker	BR Germany	52.92
6th	Joslyn Hoyte	Great Britain	52.95 SB
7th	Jarmila Kratochvílová	Czechoslovakia	53.93
8th	Patricia Darbonville	France	54.47

Run 2

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)
1	Christina Brehmer	GDR	52.01
2	Christiane Marquardt	GDR	52.29 SB
3	Irena Szewińska	Poland	52.37
4th	Verona Elder	Great Britain	52.65 SB
5	Gaby Bussmann	BR Germany	52.66 SB
6th	Dagmar Fuhrmann	BR Germany	53.23 PB
7th	Ilona Pál	Hungary	53.50 PB
8th	Marina Sidorova	Soviet Union	54.08

final

European champion Marita Koch won her first major title, which was to be followed by many more at world and European championships and the Olympic Games

August 31, 1978

space	Surname	nation	Time (s)
1	Marita Koch	GDR	48.94 WR
2	Christina Brehmer	GDR	50.38
3	Irena Szewińska	Poland	50.40 SB
4th	Maria Kultschunowa	Soviet Union	51.25 SB
5	Christiane Marquardt	GDR	51.99
6th	Donna Hartley	Great Britain	52.31
7th	Pirjo Haggman	Finland	52.64
8th	Verona Elder	Great Britain	52.73

• 

  The 1976 Olympic runner-up Christina Brehmer won the silver medal, three days later there was gold in the relay - later she won other international medals in individual and relay races, including the 1980 Olympic bronze over 400 meters

• 

  With bronze there was another medal for the extremely successful Irena Szewińska (here in 2007) - she won her first Olympic gold medal in 1964 , and many more followed at European Championships and Olympic Games in all three sprint courses , the long jump and the  relay

Web links

• European Athletics Championships - Prague 1978 from european-athletics.org, accessed August 9, 2019
• European Championship 1978 Prague, Women 400m on todor66.com, accessed August 9, 2019
• Track and Field Statistics, EM 1978 on trackfield.brinkster.net, accessed on August 9, 2019
• European Athletics Championships Zurich 2014 - Statistics Handbook , Women 400m European Championship 1974 Rome, p. 433, Spanish / English (PDF, 13,363 kB) at european-athletics.org, accessed on August 9, 2019
• Results of all European Athletics Championships - 1978, 100 m women on sportschau.de, accessed on August 9, 2019
• 12th European Athletics Championships 1978 in Prague, Czechoslovakia from ifosta.de, accessed on August 9, 2019

References and comments

1. ↑ IAAF world records. 400m women , accessed August 9, 2019