World Athletics Championships 1983/1500 m for women

World Athletics Championships 1983
discipline	1500 meter run
gender	Women
Attendees	24 athletes from 19 countries
venue	Helsinki
Competition location	Helsinki Olympic Stadium
Competition phase	August 12th (preliminary) August 14th (final)
Medalists Mary Decker ( USA )   Samira Saizewa ( URS )   Ekaterina Podkopaeva ( URS )

The Olympic Stadium in Helsinki

The women's 1,500-meter race at the 1983 World Athletics Championships took place in Helsinki , Finland on August 12-14, 1983 .

24 runners from 19 countries took part in the competition. The middle-distance runners from the Soviet Union won two silver and bronze medals. American Mary Decker won her second gold after winning the 3000 meters four days earlier with a time of 4: 00.90 minutes. Silver went to the 1982 vice European champion Samira Saizewa with 4: 01.19 minutes, and the bronze medal was won by Ekaterina Podkopajewa with 4: 02.25 minutes.

Records

Before the competition, the following records were in place:

World record	Tatiana Kasankina	3: 52.47 min	Zurich , Switzerland	August 13, 1980
World championship record	There were still no World Cup records, the event was held for the first time.

The World Cup record was gradually increased to 4:00, 90 minutes ( Mary Decker , United States , in the final on August 14, 1983).

Prelims

August 12, 1983

From the three preliminary runs, the first three of each run - highlighted in light blue - and the three fastest times - highlighted in light green - qualified for the final.

Run 1

Christiane Wartenberg (left) missed the final by a hundredth of a second as fourth in her preliminary run

space	Athlete	country	Time (min)
1	Rawilja Agletdinova	Soviet Union	4: 10.71 CR
2	Ivana Kubešová	Czechoslovakia	4: 10.82
3	Brit McRoberts	Canada	4: 10.88
4th	Christiane Wartenberg	German Democratic Republic	4: 10.89
5	Totka Petrova	Bulgaria	4: 12.31
6th	Cindy Brakeman	United States	4: 14.10
7th	Krisia L. García	El Salvador	4: 40.21
8th	Bigna Samuel	St. Vincent and the Grenadines	4: 51.35
9	Kungu Bakombo	Zaire	4: 54.12

Run 2

space	Athlete	country	Time (min)
1	Mary Decker	United States	4: 07.47 CR
2	Samira Saizewa	Soviet Union	4: 07.64
3	Wendy Sly	United Kingdom	4: 08.16
4th	Cornelia Bürki	Switzerland	4: 08.61
5	Maria Radu	Romania	4: 10.15
6th	Marcianne Mukamurenzi	Rwanda	4: 30.58
7th	Vivian Pearson	Malawi	5: 03.70
	Aurora Cunha	Portugal	DNS

Run 3

space	Athlete	country	Time (min)
1	Ekaterina Podkopaeva	Soviet Union	4: 09.39
2	Gabriella Dorio	Italy	4: 09.45
3	Doina Melinte	Romania	4: 09.71
4th	Christina Boxer	United Kingdom	4: 09.88
5	Betty Van Steenbroeck	Belgium	4: 12.93
6th	Marjo-Riitta Lakka	Finland	4: 22.33
7th	Hala El Moughrabi	Syria	4: 45.62
8th	Khadija Al Matari	Jordan	5: 01.83
	Brigitte Kraus	BR Germany	DNS

final

• 

  World champion Mary Decker (front, in 1984) won her second world championship title after winning the 3000 meters

• 

  Doina Melinte, the following year Olympic runner-up over 1500 and Olympic champion over 800 meters , came in sixth

August 14, 1983

space	Athlete	country	Time (min)
	Mary Decker	United States	4: 00.90 CR
	Samira Saizewa	Soviet Union	4: 01.19
	Ekaterina Podkopaeva	Soviet Union	4: 02.25
4th	Rawilja Agletdinova	Soviet Union	4: 02.67
5	Wendy Sly	United Kingdom	4: 04.14
6th	Doina Melinte	Romania	4: 04.42
7th	Gabriella Dorio	Italy	4: 04.73
8th	Brit McRoberts	Canada	4: 05.73
9	Christina Boxer	United Kingdom	4: 06.74
10	Cornelia Bürki	Switzerland	4: 11.61
11	Ivana Kubešová	Czechoslovakia	4: 15.12
12	Maria Radu	Romania	4: 19.03

Video

• Mary Decker 1983 World Championship 1500m desktop on youtube.com, accessed April 12, 2020

Web links and sources

• Homepage for the 1983 World Cup on the IAAF website , accessed on April 12, 2020
• Women 1500m Athletics I World Championship 1983 Helsinki, Finland on todor66.com, accessed April 12, 2020
• Results in the IAAF Statistics Handbook for the 2019 World Cup in Doha, p. 273f (PDF 10.3 MB, English), accessed on April 12, 2020

Individual evidence

1. ↑ IAAF world records. 1500 m women on rekorde-im-sport.de, accessed on April 12, 2020