World Athletics Championships 1983/100 m hurdles for women

World Athletics Championships 1983
discipline	100 meter hurdles
gender	Women
Attendees	35 athletes from 23 countries
venue	Helsinki
Competition location	Helsinki Olympic Stadium
Competition phase	August 12th (preliminary / quarter finals) August 13th (semifinals / finals)
Medalists Bettine Jahn ( GDR )   Kerstin Knabe ( GDR )   Ginka Sagortschewa ( BUL )

The Olympic Stadium in Helsinki

The women's 100 meter hurdles at the 1983 World Athletics Championships took place on August 12 and 13, 1983 in Helsinki , Finland .

35 athletes from 23 countries took part in the competition. The runners from the GDR achieved a double victory. The gold medal was won by Bettine Jahn after 12.35 seconds, silver went to Kerstin Knabe in the third place in the European Championship in 1982 with 12.42 seconds, and the bronze medal went to Bulgarian Ginka Sagortschewa with 12.62 seconds. At 2.4 m / s, the tailwind in the final was too strong for record recognition or the inclusion of times in the leaderboard.

Records

Before the competition, the following records were in place:

World record	Grażyna Rabsztyn	12.36 s	Warsaw , Poland	June 12, 1980
World championship record	There were still no World Cup records, the event was held for the first time.

The world championship record was gradually increased to 12.75 s:

• Bettine Jahn ( GDR ), third quarter-final race on August 12th
• Ginka Sagortschewa ( Bulgaria ), first semi-final race on August 13th

There were faster times, but these were accompanied by a strong tailwind and therefore not recognizable.

Prelims

August 12, 1983

From the five preliminary runs, the first five of each run - highlighted in light blue - and the seven fastest times - highlighted in light green - qualified for the quarter-finals. Only three athletes were eliminated, it would have been possible to skip the quarter-finals without any problems.

Run 1

Wind: +0.8 m / s

space	Athlete	country	Time (s)
1	Kerstin boy	German Democratic Republic	13.03 CR
2	Laurence Elloy	France	13.15
3	Ulrike Denk	BR Germany	13.26
4th	Sue Kameli	Canada	13.61
5	Heidi Benserud	Norway	13.71
6th	Elisavet Pantazi	Greece	13.90
7th	Dai Jianhua	People's Republic of China	13.97

Run 2

Wind: +2.1 m / s

The tailwind was too strong for record recognitions or for the times achieved to be included in the leaderboards.

space	Athlete	country	Time (s)
1	Ginka Sagortschewa	Bulgaria	12.78
2	Jelena Biserova	Soviet Union	12.91
3	Marie-Noëlle Savigny	France	13.21
4th	Mihaela Stoica	Romania	13.24
5	Lorna Boothe	United Kingdom	13.46
6th	Beatriz Capotosto	Argentina	13.63
7th	Lin Yueh-hsiang	Chinese Taipei	14.25

Run 3

As his of three hurdles, Nawal El Moutawakel (here 2012) failed in the preliminary round - the following year she became Olympic champion in the 400 meter hurdles

Wind: +3.1 m / s

The tailwind was too strong for record recognitions or for the times achieved to be included in the leaderboards.

space	Athlete	country	Time (s)
1	Shirley Strong	United Kingdom	13.26
2	Natalia Petrova	Soviet Union	13.43
3	Xénia Siska	Hungary	13.60
4th	Benita Fitzgerald	United States	13.67
5	Sylvia Forgrave	Canada	13.82
6th	Nawal El Moutawakel	Morocco	14.85
7th	June Caddle	Barbados	14.89

Run 4

Wind: +0.5 m / s

space	Athlete	country	Time (s)
1	Heike Filsinger	BR Germany	13.04
2	Cornelia Riefstahl	German Democratic Republic	13.07
3	Glynis Nunn	Australia	13.26
4th	Karen Nelson	Canada	13.66
5	Bright Sichlau	Denmark	13.76
6th	María José Martínez	Spain	13.78
	Candy Young	United States	DNF

Run 5

Wind: +0.6 m / s

space	Athlete	country	Time (s)
1	Bettine Jahn	German Democratic Republic	12.81 CR
2	Michèle Chardonnet	France	13.17
3	Pam Page	United States	13.18
4th	Judy Livermore	United Kingdom	13.25
5	Marjan Olyslager	Netherlands	13.26
6th	Emi Sasaki	Japan	13.78
7th	Saila Purho	Finland	13.90

Quarter finals

August 12, 1983

From the four quarter-finals, the first four of each run - highlighted in light blue - qualified for the semi-finals.

Run 1

Wind: +1.4 m / s

space	Athlete	country	Time (s)
1	Kerstin boy	German Democratic Republic	12.83
2	Judy Livermore	United Kingdom	13.22
3	Glynis Nunn	Australia	13.23
4th	Heike Filsinger	BR Germany	13.31
5	Sue Kameli	Canada	13.33
6th	Beatriz Capotosto	Argentina	13.60
7th	Elisavet Pantazi	Greece	13.95
8th	Dai Jianhua	People's Republic of China	14.07

Run 2

Wind: +2.3 m / s

The tailwind was too strong for record recognitions or for the times achieved to be included in the leaderboards.

space	Athlete	country	Time (s)
1	Ginka Sagortschewa	Bulgaria	12.66
2	Natalia Petrova	Soviet Union	12.70
3	Pam Page	United States	13.12
4th	Michèle Chardonnet	France	13.13
5	Lorna Boothe	United Kingdom	13.29
6th	Heidi Benserud	Norway	13.60
7th	Bright Sichlau	Denmark	13.73
	Lin Yueh-hsiang	Chinese Taipei	DNS

Run 3

Wind: +1.9 m / s

space	Athlete	country	Time (s)
1	Bettine Jahn	German Democratic Republic	12.75 CR
2	Laurence Elloy	France	12.95
3	Benita Fitzgerald	United States	13.15
4th	Xénia Siska	Hungary	13.16
5	Mihaela Stoica	Romania	13.21
6th	Marjan Olyslager	Netherlands	13.30
7th	Sylvia Forgrave	Canada	13.38
8th	Emi Sasaki	Japan	13.73

Run 4

Wind: +1.6 m / s

space	Athlete	country	Time (s)
1	Shirley Strong	United Kingdom	12.91
2	Jelena Biserova	Soviet Union	12.94
3	Cornelia Riefstahl	German Democratic Republic	12.96
4th	Ulrike Denk	BR Germany	13.14
5	Marie-Noëlle Savigny	France	13.21
6th	Karen Nelson	Canada	13.61
7th	María José Martinez	Spain	13.80
8th	Saila Purho	Finland	13.90

Semifinals

August 13, 1983

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

Run 1

Wind: +0.7 m / s

space	Athlete	country	Time (s)
1	Ginka Sagortschewa	Bulgaria	12.75 CRe
2	Kerstin boy	German Democratic Republic	12.83
3	Jelena Biserova	Soviet Union	12.92
4th	Shirley Strong	United Kingdom	12.99
5	Michèle Chardonnet	France	13.13
6th	Pam Page	United States	13.24
7th	Heike Filsinger	BR Germany	13.42
8th	Xénia Siska	Hungary	13.68

Run 2

Wind: +1.6 m / s

space	Athlete	country	Time (s)
1	Bettine Jahn	German Democratic Republic	12.76
2	Natalia Petrova	Soviet Union	12.83
3	Benita Fitzgerald	United States	12.96
4th	Cornelia Riefstahl	German Democratic Republic	13.00
5	Laurence Elloy	France	13.08
6th	Ulrike Denk	BR Germany	13.16
7th	Judy Livermore	United Kingdom	13.30
8th	Glynis Nunn	Australia	13.39

final

• 

  World champion Bettine Jahn (right, photo from 1983) and silver medalist Kerstin Knabe

• 

  Cornelia Riefstahl took fourth place

August 13, 1983

Wind: +2.4 m / s

The tailwind was too strong for record recognitions or for the times achieved to be included in the leaderboards.

space	Athlete	country	Time (s)
	Bettine Jahn	German Democratic Republic	12.35
	Kerstin boy	German Democratic Republic	12.42
	Ginka Sagortschewa	Bulgaria	12.62
4th	Natalia Petrova	Soviet Union	12.67
5	Shirley Strong	United Kingdom	12.78
6th	Jelena Biserova	Soviet Union	12.80
7th	Cornelia Riefstahl	German Democratic Republic	12.94
8th	Benita Fitzgerald	United States	12.99

Video links

• 1983 World Championships 100m hurdles FINAL on youtube.com, accessed April 13, 2020
• 1983 World Championships 100m hurdles Semi Final on youtube.com, accessed April 13, 2020

Web links and sources

• Results on the IAAF website , accessed April 13, 2020
• Results on todor66.com, accessed April 13, 2020
• Results in the IAAF Statistics Handbook for the 2019 World Cup in Doha (PDF 10.3 MB, p. 299, English), accessed on April 13, 2020

Individual evidence

1. ↑ IAAF world records. 100 m hurdles women on rekorde-im-sport.de, accessed on April 13, 2020