1980 World Championships in Athletics

The 1980 World Championships in Athletics was the second global, international athletics competition organised by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF). Hosted from 14 to 16 August 1980 at the De Baandert in Sittard, Netherlands, it featured two events: the women's 400 metres hurdles and the women's 3000 metres run.^[1] West Germany's Birgit Friedmann took the first women's world title in the 3000 m, while her East German counterpart Bärbel Broschat became the first women's 400 m hurdles world champion.^[2]

Summary[]

Historically, the IAAF and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) agreed that the Athletics at the Summer Olympics served as the world championship event for the sport. The IAAF began to expand its programme of approved events for women and this conflicted with the Olympic athletics programme. The 400 m hurdles was recently introduced event for female athletes while the 3000 m marked the increasing popularity of long-distance running events among women. Neither event was contested at the 1980 Moscow Olympics. The boycott of those Olympics and the presence of the Liberty Bell Classic (an alternative event for the boycotting nations) gave the IAAF additional incentive to hold its own competition; although the Soviet Union withdrew, the events in Sittard attracted entries from countries on both sides of the Western and Eastern divide.^[3]

A total of 42 women from 21 nations entered the competition – there were 18 participants in the 3000 m and 24 athletes in the 400 m hurdles. The hurdles format had four heats of six athletes, two semi-finals of eight athletes, then an "A" and a "B" final. The 3000 m run had two stages: two heats of nine athletes each, followed by a final of twelve athletes.^[4]

The tournament followed the 1976 World Championships in Athletics, which featured just one event – the men's 50 kilometres walk – and was organised by the IAAF in reaction to the IOC dropping that event for the 1976 Summer Olympics.^[2] The 1980 World Championships preceded the launch of the IAAF's independent global event, with the inaugural 1983 World Championships in Athletics taking place three years later with a programme of 41 events.^[5]

One athlete, Spain's , later had her results at the championships disqualified for doping offences.^[6]

Medallists[]

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
3000 metres	Birgit Friedmann (FRG)	Karoline Nemetz (SWE)	Ingrid Kristiansen (NOR)
400 metres hurdles	Bärbel Broschat (GDR)	Ellen Neumann (GDR)	Petra Pfaff (GDR)

Schedule[]

400 metres hurdles results[]

Heats[]

Hurdles winner Bärbel Broschat was the fastest athlete in all three rounds.

Qualifying rule: the first three athletes in each heat (Q) plus the four fastest non-qualifiers (q) progressed to the semi-finals.

Rank	Heat	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	3	Bärbel Broschat	East Germany	56.13	Q
2	4	Ellen Neumann	East Germany	56.35	Q
3	1		United States	57.51	Q
4	1		Norway	57.72	Q
5	2	Petra Pfaff	East Germany	57.92	Q
6	4	Christine Warden	Great Britain	57.84	Q
7	2	Lynette Foreman	Australia	58.07	Q
8	3	Mary Appleby	Ireland	58.54	Q
8	1	Montserrat Pujol	Spain	58.54	Q
10	3		Spain	58.79	Q
11	1	Olga Commandeur	Netherlands	58.87	q
12	4		Denmark	58.99	Q
13	2		Great Britain	59.63	Q
14	2		Switzerland	59.74	q
15	2		West Germany	59.98	q
16	3		Canada	1:00.40	q
17	3		United States	1:00.46
18	1		Chinese Taipei	1:01.01
19	3		France	1:01.12
20	2		France	1:01.22
21	4		United States	1:01.33
22	4		Canada	1:02.28
23	4	Célestine N'Drin	Ivory Coast	1:04.91
–	1		Sweden		DSQ

Semi-finals[]

Qualifying rule: the first four athletes in each semi-final (Q) progressed to the "A" final. The remaining non-qualifiers were entered into the "B" final.

Rank	Heat	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	1	Bärbel Broschat	East Germany	55.89	Q
1	2	Ellen Neumann	East Germany	55.89	Q
3	2		United States	56.16	Q
4	1	Petra Pfaff	East Germany	56.78	Q
5	1	Mary Appleby	Ireland	57.06	Q
6	2	Christine Warden	Great Britain	57.26	Q
7	1		Norway	57.44	Q
8	2	Lynette Foreman	Australia	57.46	Q
9	2		Spain	57.47
10	1	Montserrat Pujol	Spain	57.72
11	2	Olga Commandeur	Netherlands	57.93
12	1		Denmark	58.44
13	2		West Germany	59.11
14	2		Switzerland	59.55
15	1		Great Britain	59.85
16	1		Canada	1:00.14

"A" final[]

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
	Bärbel Broschat	East Germany	54.55	CR, PB
	Ellen Neumann	East Germany	54.56
	Petra Pfaff	East Germany	55.84
4	Mary Appleby	Ireland	56.51
5		United States	56.81
6		Norway	56.85
7	Lynette Foreman	Australia	58.24
N/A	Christine Warden	Great Britain	–	DSQ

"B" final[]

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1		Spain	57.51
2		Denmark	58.03
3	Montserrat Pujol	Spain	58.38
4		West Germany	58.77
5		Great Britain	59.31
6		Switzerland	59.41
7		Canada	59.61
N/A	Olga Commandeur	Netherlands	–	DNS

3000 metres results[]

Heats[]

Qualifying rule: the first five athletes in each heat (Q) plus the two fastest non-qualifiers (q) progressed to the final.

Rank	Heat	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	1	Aurora Cunha	Portugal	9:04.7	Q
1	2	Birgit Friedmann	West Germany	9:04.7	Q
3	2	Breda Pergar	Yugoslavia	9:04.9	Q
4	2	Karoline Nemetz	Sweden	9:04.9	Q
5	2	Joelle Debrouwer	France	9:05.0	Q
6	2	Penny Werthner	Canada	9:05.8	Q
7	1	Charlotte Teske	West Germany	9:06.1	Q
8	1	Ingrid Kristiansen	Norway	9:06.4	Q
9	1	Eva Ernström	Sweden	9:06.5	Q
10	2	Wendy Smith	Great Britain	9:07.3	q
11	1	Geri Fitch	Canada	9:07.6	Q
12	1		United States	9:09.4	q
13	2	Julie Shea	United States	9:11.4
14	2		Ireland	9:13.8
15	1		Israel	9:26.7
16	1	Anne Audain	New Zealand	9:26.8
17	1		United States	9:27.6
18	2		Argentina	10:01.2

Final[]

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
	Birgit Friedmann	West Germany	8:48.05	CR, PB
	Karoline Nemetz	Sweden	8:50.22
	Ingrid Kristiansen	Norway	8:58.8
4	Joelle Debrouwer	France	8:59.0
5	Breda Pergar	Yugoslavia	8:59.7
6	Penny Werthner	Canada	9:03.5
7	Charlotte Teske	West Germany	9:04.3
8	Eva Ernström	Sweden	9:07.7
9	Aurora Cunha	Portugal	9:11.2
10		United States	9:13.7
11	Geri Fitch	Canada	9:37.6
N/A	Wendy Smith	Great Britain	–	DNF

Participation[]

Medal table[]

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	East Germany (GDR)	1	1	1	3
2	West Germany (FRG)	1	0	0	1
3	Sweden (SWE)	0	1	0	1
4	Norway (NOR)	0	0	1	1
Totals (4 nations)		2	2	2	6

References[]

Results

• "12th IAAF World Championships In Athletics: IAAF Statistics Handbook. Berlin 2009" (PDF). Monte Carlo: IAAF Media & Public Relations Department. 2009. pp. 194, 210–1. Archived from the original (pdf) on 29 June 2011. Retrieved 5 August 2009.

External links[]

• Official IAAF website