World Athletics Championships 1983/800 m women

World Athletics Championships 1983
discipline	800 meter run
gender	Women
Attendees	25 athletes from 21 countries
venue	Helsinki
Competition location	Helsinki Olympic Stadium
Competition phase	August 7th (preliminary) August 8th (semi-finals) August 9th (final)
Medalists Jarmila Kratochvílová ( TCH )   Lyubov Gurina ( URS )   Ekaterina Podkopaeva ( URS )

The Olympic Stadium in Helsinki

The women's 800-meter race at the 1983 World Athletics Championships took place on August 7, 8 and 9, 1983 in Helsinki , Finland .

25 athletes from 21 countries took part in the competition. The middle-distance runners from the Soviet Union won two medals with silver and bronze . Gold was won by the Czechoslovak world record holder Jarmila Kratochvílová after 1: 54.68 minutes , Olympic runner-up over 400 meters in 1980 and vice European champion in 1982 . The next day she was also world champion in the 400 meters and also won silver with the 4 x 400 meter relay in her country. Lyubov Gurina took second place with 1: 56.11 min. The bronze medal was secured with 1: 57.58 minutes by Jekaterina Podkopajewa , who won a second bronze medal five days later over 1500 meters .

Records

Before the competition, the following records were in place:

World record	Jarmila Kratochvílová	1: 53.28 min	Munich , FR Germany	July 26, 1983
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 1: 54.68 min ( Jarmila Kratochvílová , Czechoslovakia , in the final on August 9, 1983).

Prelims

August 7, 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 (min)
1	Margrit Klinger	BR Germany	2: 02.08 CR
2	Jolanta Januchta	Poland	2: 02.58
3	Milena Matějkovičová	Czechoslovakia	2: 02.60
4th	Elena Lina	Romania	2: 04.50
5	Attina Sawtell	Cook Islands	2: 18.25
6th	Kungu Bakombo	Zaire	2: 19.68

Run 2

space	Athlete	country	Time (min)
1	Ekaterina Podkopaeva	Soviet Union	2: 06.42
2	Totka Petrova	Bulgaria	2: 06.60
3	Zuzana Moravčíková	Czechoslovakia	2: 06.76
4th	Jill McCabe	Sweden	2: 07.23
5	Maria Lomba	Sao Tome and Principe	2: 21.90
	Fatalmoudou Touré	Mali	DSQ

Run 3

space	Athlete	country	Time (min)
1	Antje Schröder	German Democratic Republic	2: 10.61
2	Jarmila Kratochvílová	Czechoslovakia	2: 12.35
3	Celestine N'Drin	Ivory Coast	2: 12.52
4th	Hala El-Moughrabi	Syria	2: 15.37
5	Eucaris Caicedo	Colombia	2: 17.06
6th	Sofiya Mohamed	Comoros	2: 55.64
	Irina Podjalovskaya	Soviet Union	DNS

Run 4

space	Athlete	country	Time (min)
1	Lyubov Gurina	Soviet Union	2: 04.17
2	Doina Melinte	Romania	2: 04.30
3	Robin Campbell	United States	2: 04.83
4th	Tina Krebs	Denmark	2: 05.49
5	Jennifer Bean	Bermuda	2: 13.80
6th	Trịnh Thị Bé	Vietnam	2: 17.54
7th	Khadija Al Matari	Jordan	2: 28.72

Semifinals

August 8, 1983

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

Run 1

space	Athlete	country	Time (min)
1	Ekaterina Podkopaeva	Soviet Union	1: 59.55 CR
2	Jarmila Kratochvílová	Czechoslovakia	1: 59.58
3	Milena Matějkovičová	Czechoslovakia	2: 00.02
4th	Robin Campbell	United States	2: 00.22
5	Jolanta Januchta	Poland	2: 02.23
6th	Jill McCabe	Sweden	2: 02.92
7th	Elena Lina	Romania	2: 03.59
8th	Celestine N'Drin	Ivory Coast	2: 08.14

Run 2

space	Athlete	country	Time (min)
1	Lyubov Gurina	Soviet Union	1: 59.33 CR
2	Antje Schröder	German Democratic Republic	1: 59.46
3	Margrit Klinger	BR Germany	1: 59.49
4th	Doina Melinte	Romania	1: 59.60
5	Zuzana Moravčíková	Czechoslovakia	1: 59.96
6th	Totka Petrova	Bulgaria	2: 01.32
7th	Tina Krebs	Denmark	2: 02.19
8th	Jennifer Bean	Bermuda	2: 12.93

• 

  World record holder Jarmila Kratochvílová won her first World Championship title, the second followed over 400 meters and on the final day there was still silver over 4 × 400 meters

• 

  Doina Melinte, Olympic champion over 800 meters and Olympic second over 1500 meters the following year , finished sixth

final

August 9, 1983

space	Athlete	country	Time (min)
	Jarmila Kratochvílová	Czechoslovakia	1: 54.68 CR
	Lyubov Gurina	Soviet Union	1: 56.11
	Ekaterina Podkopaeva	Soviet Union	1: 57.58
4th	Margrit Klinger	BR Germany	1: 58.11
5	Robin Campbell	United States	2: 00.03
6th	Doina Melinte	Romania	2: 00.13
7th	Milena Matějkovičová	Czechoslovakia	2: 01.72
8th	Antje Schröder	German Democratic Republic	2: 02.13

Video

• W800m (1.54.68) 1983 World Championships, Helsinki (Kratochvílová) on youtube.com, accessed on April 11, 2020

Web links and sources

• Results on the IAAF website , accessed April 11, 2020
• Results on todor66.com, accessed April 11, 2020
• Results in the IAAF Statistics Handbook for the 2019 World Cup in Doha, p. 267 (PDF 10.3 MB, English), accessed on April 11, 2020

Individual evidence

1. ↑ IAAF world records. 800 m women on rekorde-im-sport.de, accessed on April 11, 2020