1968 Summer Olympics / Athletics - 80 m hurdles (women)

sport	athletics
discipline	80 meter hurdles
gender	Women
Attendees	33 athletes from 23 countries
Competition location	Estadio Olímpico Universitario
Competition phase	October 17, 1968 (preliminary) October 18, 1968 (semifinals / finals)
Medalists Maureen Caird ( AUS )   Pam Kilborn ( AUS )   Chi Cheng ( TPE )

The women's 80-meter hurdles at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City was held on October 17 and 18, 1968 at the Estadio Olímpico Universitario . 33 athletes took part. This discipline was last held at the Olympic Games. From 1972 the 100-meter hurdles for women was introduced.

The Australian Maureen Caird became Olympic champion . She won ahead of her compatriots Pam Kilborn and Chi Cheng from Taiwan.

Inge Schell competed for the Federal Republic of Germany - officially Germany - and Karin Balzer for the GDR - officially East Germany . Schell was eliminated in the semi-finals, Balzer qualified for the final and was fifth there.

The Austrian Inge Aigner qualified for the semi-finals, but was eliminated there as the last of her run.

The Swiss Meta Antenen failed in her run.

Runners from Liechtenstein did not take part.

Existing records

World record	10.2 s	Vera Korsakova ( Soviet Union )	Riga , Soviet Union (now Latvia )	June 16, 1968
Olympic record	10.6 s	Irina Press ( Soviet Union )	Rome semifinals , Italy	August 31, 1960
		Pam Kilborn ( Australia )	Tokyo semi-finals , Japan	October 19, 1964
		Karin Balzer ( Germany )	Tokyo semi-finals , Japan	October 19, 1964

Conducting the competition

The athletes competed in a total of five heats on October 17th. The three best runners and the fastest who followed made it to the semi-finals, which took place on October 18th. Here the four first placed runners qualified for the final on the same day.

Time schedule

October 17, 4:20 p.m .: preliminary runs

October 18, 3 p.m .: semi-finals

October 18, 4:20 p.m .: Final

Note: All times are Mexico City local time ( UTC −6)

The directly qualified athletes are highlighted in light blue, the others in light green.

Preliminary round

Date: October 17, 1968, from 4:20 p.m.

Forward 1

Out in advance for Jenny Meldrum from Canada

Wind: +2.4 m / s

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Mamie Rallins	United States	10.6 s	10.69 s
2	Vera Korsakova	Soviet Union	10.6 s	10.74 s
3	Inge Schell	BR Germany	10.7 s	10.77 s
4th	Carmen Smith	Jamaica	11.0 s	11.09 s
5	Carla Panerai	Italy	11.0 s	11.10 s
6th	Enriqueta Basilio	Mexico	11.1 s	11.20 s
7th	Ulla-Britt Wieslander	Sweden	11.2 s	11.24 s

Forward 2

Wind: +0.2 m / s

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Pam Kilborn	Australia	10.4 s	10.41 s	OR
2	Valeria Bufanu	Romania	10.9 s	10.92 s
3	Maria Kiss	Hungary	10.9 s	10.93 s
4th	Marlene Elejarde	Cuba	10.9 s	10.99 s
5	Marijana Lubej	Yugoslavia	11.0 s	11.02 s
6th	Snezhana Yurukova	Bulgaria	11.0 s	11.07 s
7th	Ann Wilson	Great Britain	11.1 s	11.19 s

Forward 3

Wind: +0.8 m / s

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Patty Van Wolvelaere	United States	10.6 s	10.65 s
2	Teresa Sukniewicz	Poland	10.7 s	10.72 s
3	Tatiana Talysheva	Soviet Union	10.8 s	10.81 s
4th	Carlota Ulloa	Chile	11.1 s	11.13 s
5	Jenny Meldrum	Canada	11.1 s	11.17 s
DNF	Pat Pryce	Great Britain

Forward 4

Wind: +2.0 m / s

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Maureen Caird	Australia	10.4 s	10.48 s	ORe
2	Chi Cheng	Taiwan	10.5 s	10.53 s
3	Danuta Straszyńska	Poland	10.7 s	10.72 s
4th	Inge Aigner	Austria	10.8 s	10.83 s
5	Meta antennas	Switzerland	10.9 s	10.95 s
6th	Pat Jones	Great Britain	11.0 s	11.03 s
7th	Roswitha Emonts guest	Belgium	11.0 s	11.03 s

Forward 5

Wind: +1.5 m / s

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Karin Balzer	GDR	10.7 s	10.72 s
2	Elżbieta Żebrowska	Poland	10.8 s	10.83 s
3	Judy Dyer	United States	10.9 s	10.94 s
4th	Lyudmila Yevleva	Soviet Union	10.9 s	10.97 s
5	Yeh Chu-mei	Taiwan	11.7 s	11.77 s
6th	Cecilia Sosa	El Salvador	12.8 s	12.90 s

Semifinals

Date: October 18, 1968, from 3 p.m.

Run 1

Wind: −2.0 m / s

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Maureen Caird	Australia	10.5 s	10.59 s
2	Patty Van Wolvelaere	United States	10.6 s	10.72 s
3	Tatiana Talysheva	Soviet Union	10.7 s	10.80 s
4th	Karin Balzer	GDR	10.8 s	10.83 s
5	Vera Korsakova	Soviet Union	10.8 s	10.86 s
6th	Teresa Sukniewicz	Poland	10.9 s	11.00 s
7th	Valeria Bufanu	Romania	11.0 s	11.08 s
8th	Inge Aigner	Austria	11.1 s	11.12 s

Run 2

Wind: 0.0 m / s

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Pam Kilborn	Australia	10.4 s	10.44 s	ORe
2	Chi Cheng	Taiwan	10.5 s	10.56 s
3	Danuta Straszyńska	Poland	10.5 s	10.60 s
4th	Elżbieta Żebrowska	Poland	10.6 s	10.70 s
5	Mamie Rallins	United States	10.6 s	10.70 s
6th	Judy Dyer	United States	10.8 s	10.84 s
7th	Inge Schell	BR Germany	10.8 s	10.84 s
8th	Maria Kiss	Hungary	11.2 s	11.22 s

final

space	Surname	nation	Official time hand-stopped	Unofficial time electronically	annotation
1	Maureen Caird	Australia	10.3 s	10.39 s	OR
2	Pam Kilborn	Australia	10.4 s	10.46 s
3	Chi Cheng	Taiwan	10.4 s	10.51 s
4th	Patty Van Wolvelaere	United States	10.5 s	10.60 s
5	Karin Balzer	GDR	10.6 s	10.61 s
6th	Danuta Straszyńska	Poland	10.6 s	10.66 s
7th	Elżbieta Żebrowska	Poland	10.6 s	10.66 s
8th	Tatiana Talysheva	Soviet Union	10.7 s	10.72 s

Date: October 18, 1968, 4:20 p.m.

Wind: 0.0 m / s

In addition to world record holder Vera Korsakowa, the Olympic champion from 1964 , Karin Balzer, was also the favorite, as was the Australian Pam Kilborn, who had not lost a race since her bronze medal in 1964. However, Korsakowa was surprisingly eliminated in the semifinals.

The two favorites got off to a bad start in the final. Balzer could no longer compensate for the handicap and was only fifth. Kilborn, on the other hand, was able to improve and came within a tenth of a second to her young team-mate Maureen Caird, who, however, won the race. Chi Cheng from Taiwan won the bronze medal behind the two Australians.

With her victory, 17-year-old Maureen Caird became the youngest athletics Olympic champion in an individual discipline.

Chi Cheng was the first Taiwanese woman to win an Olympic medal.

Maureen Caird and Pam Kilborn won the sixth and seventh Australian medals in the women's 80-meter Olympic hurdles .

With three gold, one silver and three bronze medals, Australia was the most successful nation in this discipline - and it remained so, because this competition was held in Mexico City for the last time. From 1972 on there was the 100-meter hurdles instead .

literature

• Ekkehard zur Megede , The History of Olympic Athletics, Volume 2: 1948–1968, Verlag Bartels & Wernitz KG, Berlin, 1st edition 1969, p. 385f

Video

• 80m Hurdles 1968 Olympic Games Mexico Karin Balzer , published January 6, 2010 on youtube.com, accessed November 10, 2017

Web links

• SportsReference 80m hurdles , accessed November 10, 2017
• Official report - summary p. 73, English / French. (PDF), accessed on November 10, 2017
• Official report of the Olympic Games 1968 p. 535, English / French. (PDF), accessed on November 10, 2017

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Ekkehard zur Megede , The History of Olympic Athletics, Volume 2: 1948–1968, Verlag Bartels & Wernitz KG, Berlin, 1st edition 1969, p. 386
2. ↑ Official report of the 1968 Olympic Games ( Memento of the original from September 17, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. P. 10f, English / French (PDF), accessed on November 10, 2017 
3. ↑ ^{a b c} Official report of the 1968 Olympic Games ( Memento of the original from September 17, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. P. 535, engl./frz. (PDF), accessed on November 10, 2017 
4. ↑ SportsReference , accessed November 10, 2017