World Athletics Championships 1983/400 m hurdles for women

World Athletics Championships 1983
discipline	400 meter hurdles
gender	Women
Attendees	31 athletes from 20 countries
venue	Helsinki
Competition location	Helsinki Olympic Stadium
Competition phase	August 8th (preliminary) August 9th (semi-finals) August 10th (final)
Medalists Ekaterina Fessenko ( URS )   Ana Ambrazienė ( URS )   Ellen Fiedler ( GDR )

The Olympic Stadium in Helsinki

The women's 400 meter hurdles at the 1983 World Athletics Championships took place on August 8, 9 and 10, 1983 in Helsinki , Finland .

31 athletes from 20 countries took part in the competition. The runners from the Soviet Union achieved a double victory. The gold medal was won by Jekaterina Fessenko after 54.14 s, silver went to Ana Ambrazienė , who was only a hundredth of a second behind with 54.15 s. The bronze medal was secured by the 1980 vice world champion Ellen Fiedler from the GDR with 54.55 minutes.

Records

Before the competition, the following records were in place:

World record	Ana Ambrazienė	54.02 s	Moscow , Soviet Union	June 11, 1983
World championship record	Bärbel brooch	54.55 s	Sittard , Netherlands	August 16, 1980

World champion Jekaterina Fessenko from the Soviet Union improved the World Cup record in the final on August 10, 1983 by 41 hundredths of a second to 54.14 s

Prelims

August 8, 1983

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

Run 1

space	Athlete	country	time
1	Ekaterina Fessenko	Soviet Union	56.43 s
2	Ann-Louise Skoglund	Sweden	56.80 s
3	Gwen Wall	Canada	57.14 s
4th	Judi Brown	United States	57.14 s
5	Giuseppina Cirulli	Italy	57.43 s
6th	Rose Tata-Muya	Kenya	58.09 s
7th	Liu Guihua	People's Republic of China	59.39 s
8th	Felicia Candelario	Dominican Republic	1: 00.72 min

Run 2

space	Athlete	country	time
1	Ana Ambrazienė	Soviet Union	56.30 s
2	Susan Morley	United Kingdom	56.58 s
3	Petra Krug	German Democratic Republic	56.87 s
4th	Anna Filicková	Czechoslovakia	57.09 s
5	Ruth Kyalisima	Uganda	57.58 s
6th	Bright Sichlau	Denmark	57.90 s
7th	Tonja Brown	United States	58.00 s
8th	Ovrill Dwyer-Brown	Jamaica	58.40 s

Run 3

space	Athlete	country	time
1	Nawal El Moutawakel	Morocco	56.52 s
2	Petra Pfaff	German Democratic Republic	56.56 s
3	Hilde Fredriksen	Norway	56.66 s
4th	Christine Slythe	Canada	57.40 s
5	Sandra Farmer	Jamaica	57.97 s
6th	Verona Elder	United Kingdom	58.74 s
7th	Tuija Helander	Finland	59.43 s
	Mary Wagner	BR Germany	DNF

Run 4

space	Athlete	country	time
1	Debbie Flintoff	Australia	56.47 s
2	Cristieana Cojocaru	Romania	56.49 s
3	Ellen Fiedler	German Democratic Republic	56.58 s
4th	Sharrieffa Barksdale	United States	56.60 s
5	Gladys Taylor	United Kingdom	58.25 s
6th	Andrea Page	Canada	58.55 s
7th	Marcela Sevcikova	Czechoslovakia	1: 00.34 min

Semifinals

August 9, 1983

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

Run 1

space	Athlete	country	Time (s)
1	Petra Pfaff	German Democratic Republic	55.77
2	Ekaterina Fessenko	Soviet Union	55.99
3	Ann-Louise Skoglund	Sweden	56.01
4th	Susan Morley	United Kingdom	56.09
5	Debbie Flintoff	Australia	56.63
6th	Gwen Wall	Canada	56.68
7th	Judi Brown	United States	57.98
	Hilde Fredriksen	Norway	DNS

Run 2

Nawal El Moutawakel was eliminated in the semifinals - in 1984 she became an Olympic champion

space	Athlete	country	Time (s)
1	Ana Ambrazienė	Soviet Union	55.18
2	Ellen Fiedler	German Democratic Republic	55.23
3	Petra Krug	German Democratic Republic	55.98
4th	Cristieana Cojocaru	Romania	56.71
5	Sharrieffa Barksdale	United States	56.81
6th	Nawal El Moutawakel	Morocco	57.10
7th	Anna Filicková	Czechoslovakia	57.64
8th	Christine Slythe	Canada	58.53

final

August 10, 1983

space	train	Athlete	country	Time (s)
	5	Ekaterina Fessenko	Soviet Union	54.14 CR
	3	Ana Ambrazienė	Soviet Union	54.15
	1	Ellen Fiedler	German Democratic Republic	54.55
4th	7th	Petra Pfaff	German Democratic Republic	54.64
5	8th	Petra Krug	German Democratic Republic	54.76
6th	2	Ann-Louise Skoglund	Sweden	54.80
7th	6th	Susan Morley	United Kingdom	56.04
8th	4th	Cristieana Cojocaru	Romania	56.26

• 

  Petra Pfaff (No. 448) came fourth

• 

  Petra Krug (far left) took fifth place

• 

  Eighth place for Cristieana Cojocaru

Video

• 1983 World Championships 400m Hurdles Women 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. 305, English), accessed on April 13, 2020

Individual evidence

1. ↑ IAAF world records. 400 m hurdles women on rekorde-im-sport.de, accessed on April 13, 2020