Athletics at the 1981 Summer Universiade

Athletics at the XI Summer Universiade
Athletics at the XI Summer Universiade
	The host stadium for the events
Dates	21–26 July 1981
Host city	Bucharest, Romania
Venue	Stadionul Naţional
Level	University
Events	39
Records set	14 Games records
	← 1979 Mexico City 1983 Edmonton → ; 1981 Summer Universiade

The athletics competition at the 1981 Summer Universiade was held at the National Stadium in Bucharest, Romania, in July 1981. The programme featured 23 events for men and 16 for women. A total of fourteen Universiade records were broken during the 1981 Games.

The Soviet Union was the most successful nation medals-wise as it topped the table with eleven gold medals and 32 in total. The United States, runners-up in the competition, also took eleven gold medals, but had a lesser haul overall with 17 medal performances. East Germany and Italy had the next greatest number of gold medals, with four and three respectively, but it was the host nation Romania which was third place in the total tally, having won two golds but fifteen medals overall.

The competition featured a men's marathon race and a 20 kilometres road walk for the first time, expanding the programme outside of the usual track and field stadium. The women's 3000 metres also made its first Games appearance, having been previously held at only the 1975 World University Championships in Athletics competition. The 400 metres hurdles and 4×400 metres relay for women were other new additions to the Universiade athletics contest, while the women's pentathlon was replaced with the more extensive heptathlon event.

Saïd Aouita demonstrated his potential with a win in the 1500 metres in a Games record time. The 1980 Olympic gold medallists Dainis Kūla (javelin) and Maurizio Damilano (20 km walk) won their respective disciplines. On the women's side, reigning Olympic champions Tatyana Kolpakova and Sara Simeoni won the long jump and high jump events. Konstantin Volkov, the 1980 Olympic silver medallist, was another high-profile name and he set a record to win the men's pole vault. Romanian Doina Melinte won the women's 800 metres gold and 1500 m silver and later went on to win medals of those colours at the 1984 Summer Olympics. An unusual mistake occurred in the men's 10,000 metres competition, as the athletes ran a further lap of the circuit than intended – resulting in a total distance of 10,400 m.

Medal summary[]

Men's events[]

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
100 metres (wind: -0.5 m/s) details	Mel Lattany (USA)	10.18	Calvin Smith (USA)	10.26	Ernest Obeng (GHA)	10.37
200 metres (wind: +0.4 m/s) details	(URS)	20.79	István Nagy (HUN)	20.83	Georges Kablan Degnan (CIV)	20.97
400 metres details	Cliff Wiley (USA)	45.18	Walter McCoy (USA)	45.33	Gerson de Souza (BRA)	45.91
800 metres details	(GDR)	1:50.12	Sotirios Moutsanas (GRE)	1:50.20	(URS)	1:50.26
1500 metres details	Saïd Aouita (MAR)	3:38.43 GR	Vinko Pokrajčić (YUG)	3:39.83	Amar Brahmia (ALG)	3:39.85
5000 metres details	Doug Padilla (USA)	13:49.95	(TCH)	13:50.34	(FRG)	13:50.84
10,000 metres details †	(URS)	29:42.83	(ROM)	29:51.13	(GBR)	29:51.27
Marathon details	(URS)	2:22:14 GR	(USA)	2:23:22	(ROM)	2:24:45
110 metres hurdles (wind: +1.0 m/s) details	Larry Cowling (USA)	13.65	(ROM)	13.73	(URS)	13.82
400 metres hurdles details	David Lee (USA)	49.05	(URS)	49.52	Antônio Dias Ferreira (BRA)	50.04
3000 metres steeplechase details	John Gregorek (USA)	8:21.26 GR	Tommy Ekblom (FIN)	8:21.93	Mariano Scartezzini (ITA)	8:28.03
4 × 100 metres relay details	United States (USA) Mel Lattany Anthony Ketchum Jason Grimes Calvin Smith	38.70	Soviet Union (URS) Andrey Shlyapnikov Nikolay Sidorov Aleksandr Aksinin Vladimir Muravyov	38.94	France (FRA) Aldo Canti	39.50
4 × 400 metres relay details	Soviet Union (URS) Viktor Burakov Viktor Markin Aleksandr Kurochkin	3:02.75	United States (USA) David Lee Anthony Ketchum David Patrick Walter McCoy	3:03.01	Brazil (BRA) Katsuhiko Nakaya Paulo Roberto Correia Gérson de Souza	3:06.79
20 kilometres walk details	Maurizio Damilano (ITA)	1:26:47 GR	Carlo Mattioli (ITA)	1:28:10	(ROM)	1:28:56
High jump details	Leo Williams (USA)	2.25 m	Zhu Jianhua (CHN)	2.25 m	Gerd Nagel (FRG)	2.25 m
Pole vault details	Konstantin Volkov (URS)	5.75 m GR	Vladimir Polyakov (URS)	5.70 m	Philippe Houvion (FRA)	5.65 m
Long jump details	László Szalma (HUN)	8.23 m (w)	Liu Yuhuang (CHN)	8.11 m	Ubaldo Duany (CUB)	8.10 m
Triple jump details	Zou Zhenxian (CHN)	17.32 m GR	Béla Bakosi (HUN)	16.97 m	Keith Connor (GBR)	16.88 m
Shot put details	Mike Carter (USA)	20.19 m	(GDR)	19.35 m	Dalibor Vašíček (TCH)	19.20 m
Discus throw details	Armin Lemme (GDR)	65.90 m GR	Wolfgang Warnemünde (GDR)	63.54 m	(ROM)	63.40 m
Hammer throw details	Klaus Ploghaus (FRG)	77.74 m GR	Jüri Tamm (URS)	76.54 m	Igor Nikulin (URS)	75.24 m
Javelin throw details	Dainis Kūla (URS)	89.52 m GR	Gerald Weiß (GDR)	87.80 m	Heino Puuste (URS)	87.22 m
Decathlon details	Aleksandr Shablenko (URS)	8055 pts	Sergey Zhelanov (URS)	8013 pts	Georg Werthner (AUT)	7825 pts

† = The 10,000 m race was held for one lap too many, resulting in a final distance of 10,400 m.

Women's events[]

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
100 metres details	Bev Goddard (GBR)	11.35	(URS)	11.51	Olga Nasonova (URS)	11.54
200 metres (wind: +1.0 m/s) details	Kathy Smallwood (GBR)	22.78	Marisa Masullo (ITA)	23.36	Irina Nazarova (URS)	23.45
400 metres details	Irina Baskakova (URS)	51.45	(URS)	51.56	Sophie Malbranque (FRA)	52.52
800 metres details	Doina Melinte (ROM)	1:57.81	Gabriella Dorio (ITA)	1:58.99	(ROM)	1:59.30
1500 metres details	Gabriella Dorio (ITA)	4:05.35 GR	Doina Melinte (ROM)	4:05.74	Olga Dvirna (URS)	4:06.39
3000 metres details	Breda Pergar (YUG)	8:53.78 GR	(URS)	8:54.23	Maria Radu (ROM)	8:58.58
100 metres hurdles (wind: -0.6 m/s) details	Stephanie Hightower (USA)	13.03	(URS)	13.13	Elżbieta Rabsztyn (POL)	13.31
400 metres hurdles details	Anna Kastyetskaya (URS)	55.52 GR	(GDR)	55.90	(URS)	57.07
4 × 100 metres relay details	United States (USA) Carol Lewis Benita Fitzgerald	43.66	Great Britain (GBR) Yvette Wray Kathy Smallwood Sue Hearnshaw Beverley Goddard	43.86	Italy (ITA) Antonella Capriotti Carla Mercurio Patrizia Lombardo Marisa Masullo	44.43
4 × 400 metres relay details	Soviet Union (URS) Ana Ambrazienė Irina Baskakova Irina Nazarova	3:26.65	United States (USA) Robin Campbell Delisa Walton-Floyd	3:29.50	Romania (ROM) Ibolya Korodi Elena Tărîţă	3:30.47
High jump details	Sara Simeoni (ITA)	1.96 m GR	Lyudmila Andonova (BUL)	1.94 m	Tamara Bykova (URS)	1.94 m
Long jump details	Tatyana Kolpakova (URS)	6.83 m	Anişoara Cuşmir (ROM)	6.77 m	Valy Ionescu (ROM)	6.61 m
Shot put details	Helma Knorscheidt (GDR)	20.24 m	Ines Müller (GDR)	19.66 m	(URS)	18.50 m
Discus throw details	Florenţa Crăciunescu (ROM)	67.48 m GR	(GDR)	64.14 m	Mariana Ionescu (ROM)	61.84 m
Javelin throw details	Petra Felke (GDR)	65.20 m	Karin Smith (USA)	64.12 m	(CUB)	63.88 m
Heptathlon details	Małgorzata Guzowska (POL)	6198 pts	Nadezhda Vinogradova (URS)	6133 pts	(ROM)	6033 pts

Medal table[]

Petra Felke won her first international gold in the javelin and went on to win at the 1988 Summer Olympics.

1980 Olympian Ines Müller took silver in the women's shot put.

Javelin runner-up Gerald Weiß was one of many East Germans to medal in the throws.

* Host nation (Romania)


Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Soviet Union (URS)	11	10	11	32
2	United States (USA)	11	6	0	17
3	East Germany (GDR)	4	5	0	9
4	Italy (ITA)	3	3	2	8
5	Romania (ROM)*	2	4	9	15
6	Great Britain (GBR)	2	1	2	5
7	China (CHN)	1	2	0	3
	Hungary (HUN)	1	2	0	3
	Yugoslavia (YUG)	1	2	0	3
10	West Germany (FRG)	1	0	2	3
11	Poland (POL)	1	0	1	2
12	Morocco (MAR)	1	0	0	1
13	Bulgaria (BUL)	0	1	0	1
	Czechoslovakia (TCH)	0	1	0	1
	Finland (FIN)	0	1	0	1
	Greece (GRE)	0	1	0	1
17	Brazil (BRA)	0	0	3	3
17	France (FRA)	0	0	3	3
19	Cuba (CUB)	0	0	2	2
20	Algeria (ALG)	0	0	1	1
	Austria (AUT)	0	0	1	1
	Ghana (GHA)	0	0	1	1
	Ivory Coast (CIV)	0	0	1	1
Totals (23 nations)		39	39	39	117

References[]

World Student Games (Universiade – Men). GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 2010-08-25.
World Student Games (Universiade – Women). GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 2010-08-25.