Maricica Puică

Maricica Puică
Maricica Puică 1982
Full name	Maricica Puică
nation	Romania
birthday	29th July 1950 (age 70)
place of birth	Iași, Romania
Career
discipline	Long distance running
status	resigned
last change: April 18, 2020

Maricica Puică , nee Maricica Luca , (born July 29, 1950 in Iași ) is a former Romanian athlete . The middle and long-distance runner became Olympic champion in 1984 .

Career

Puică could hardly achieve success at a young age. At the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal , she was eliminated over 1500 meters in the run. It wasn't until the age of 27 that she finished third at the World Cross Country Championships in 1978 and won the gold medal together with the team. In the summer she reached the final twice at the European Athletics Championships in Prague in 1978 . After finishing fourth over 3000 meters in 8: 40.9 minutes , she finished eleventh over 1500 meters. At the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow , she reached the 1,500 meter final, but 4: 01.26 minutes was only enough for seventh place.

In 1982 Puică first appeared at the European Indoor Championships, in Milan she finished second over 3000 meters in 8: 54.26 minutes behind the Italian Agnese Possamai . A few weeks later she won the gold medal in the individual competition at the Cross Country World Championships. In the summer she ran in both finals at the European Championships in Athens . In 8: 33.33 min she finished second behind Swetlana Ulmassowa over 3000 meters , but was more than three seconds behind. Over 1500 meters she was fourth in 3: 59.31 minutes, three tenths of a second missing from Gabriella Dorio's bronze medal .

In 1984 Puică won for the second time in the individual competition at the World Cross Country Championships. In the summer of 1984, the Romanian middle and long distance runners led by Doina Melinte and Puică were among the favorites at the Olympic Games in Los Angeles , as the Russian runners were absent because of the Olympic boycott. Puică's Olympic program began on August 8th with the preliminary run over the first ever Olympic 3000 meters, Puică won the third preliminary run in 8: 43.32 minutes. On August 9th, the prelims were over 1500 meters, Puică finished second behind Gabriella Dorio in the second prelim in 4: 05.30 minutes. The 3000 meter final took place on August 10th. The world champion Mary Decker from the USA ran in front, followed by the British Zola Budd . Decker collided with Budd, fell and gave up, while Puică took over the lead with Britain's Wendy Sly . In the last 200 meters, Puică ran out a clear lead over Sly and won in 8: 35.96 minutes. The next day, on August 11th, Puică was the only participant in the 3000 meter final and the 1500 meter final. In 4: 04.15 min she won the bronze medal behind Dorio and Melinte.

In the following three years Puică was one of the stars at major sports festivals. In 1986 she won the Grand Prix over 1500 meters and came second in the overall standings, in 1987 she won the Grand Prix over 3000 meters. At the 1986 European Championships in Stuttgart , she won silver in 8: 35.92 minutes over 3000 meters behind Olga Bondarenko from the USSR. Three days later she finished fifth over 1500 meters in 4: 03.90 minutes. In 1987 she took part in the first official World Indoor Championships in Indianapolis . In 8: 47.92 min she won bronze over 3000 meters behind Tetjana Samolenko and Olga Bondarenko. Samolenko won again at the World Championships in Rome , Puică was just behind in 8: 39.45 minutes and received silver. At the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul , her fourth participation, she got out in the 3000 meter run 200 meters from the finish. She won her last international medal at the European Indoor Championships in 1989 in The Hague . In a race with five participants, four of whom crossed the finish line, she finished third in 9: 15.49 minutes, over five seconds behind the winner, Elly van Hulst .

In her career she set three world records: 1982 in Rieti in the mile run with a time of 4: 17.44 minutes, 1979 in Bucharest over 2000 meters in 5: 33.5 minutes and 1986 in London , also over 2000 meters with a time of 5: 28.69 min.

At the Romanian national championships she won over 1500 meters in 1982, 1977, 1980, 1981 as well as 1984 and 1985 she won over 3000 meters; In 1987 a title over 10,000 meters was added.

Maricica Puică is 1.68 m tall and weighed 54 kg at competition times. She was married to her trainer Ion Puică (1930-2019).

Best times

• 800 m : 1: 57.8 min, June 17, 1979, Bucharest
• 1000 m : 2: 31.5 min, June 1, 1986, Poiana Brașov
  • Hall: 2: 42.64 min, January 22, 1989, Sherbrooke
• 1500 m: 3: 57.22 min, July 1, 1984, Bucharest
• 1 mile: 4: 17.33 min, August 21, 1985, Zurich
  • Hall: 4: 28.55 min, March 10, 1982, Milan
• 2000 m: 5: 28.69 min, July 11, 1986, London
• 3000 m: 8: 27.83 min, September 7, 1985, Rome
  • Hall: 8: 43.49 min, February 27, 1987, Princeton
• 5000 m : 15: 06.04 min, July 4th 1985, Helsinki
• 10,000 m: 33: 32.97 min, 1987

literature

• Peter Matthews (Ed.): Athletics 89/90. London 1989, ISBN 0-948209-33-X

Web links

Commons : Maricica Puică  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Maricica Puică at the COSR (Romanian)
• Maricica Puică in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
• Maricica puică in the database of World Athletics (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ A murit Ion Puică, fostul mare antrenor român de atletism , accessed on December 11, 2019 (Romanian)