1980 World Championships in Athletics

The 1980 World Championships in Athletics (Dutch: 1980 Wereldkampioenschappen atletiek) 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]

1980 World Championships in Athletics

Dutch logo
Host city	Sittard, Netherlands
Nations	21
Athletes	42
Events	2
Dates	14–16 August 1980
Opened by	Queen Beatrix
Main venue	De Baandert
← 1976 Malmö 1983 Helsinki →

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 Rosa Colorado, later had her results at the championships disqualified for doping offences.^[6]

Medallists

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
3000 metres	Birgit Friedmann  West Germany	Karoline Nemetz  Sweden	Ingrid Kristiansen  Norway
400 metres hurdles	Bärbel Broschat  East Germany	Ellen Neumann  East Germany	Petra Pfaff  East Germany

Medal table

  *   Host nation (Netherlands)

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	East Germany	1	1	1	3
2	West Germany	1	0	0	1
3	Sweden	0	1	0	1
4	Norway	0	0	1	1
Totals (4 entries)		2	2	2	6

Schedule

Date	Event
14 August	400 m hurdles heats 3000 m heats
15 August	400 m hurdles semi-finals 10,000 m final
16 August	400 m hurdles finals 3000 m final

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 (GDR)	56.13	Q
2	4	Ellen Neumann	East Germany (GDR)	56.35	Q
3	1	Esther Mahr	United States (USA)	57.51	Q
4	1	Hilde Frederiksen	Norway (NOR)	57.72	Q
5	2	Petra Pfaff	East Germany (GDR)	57.92	Q
6	4	Christine Warden	Great Britain & N.I. (GBR)	57.84	Q
7	2	Lynette Foreman	Australia (AUS)	58.07	Q
8	1	Montserrat Pujol	Spain (ESP)	58.54	Q
8	3	Mary Appleby	Ireland (IRL)	58.54	Q
10	3	Rosa Colorado	Spain (ESP)	58.79	Q
11	1	Olga Commandeur	Netherlands (NED)	58.87	q
12	4	Helle Sichlau	Denmark (DEN)	58.99	Q
13	2	Susan Dalgoutté	Great Britain & N.I. (GBR)	59.63	Q
14	2	Esther Kaufmann	Switzerland (SUI)	59.74	q
15	2	Simone Büngener	West Germany (FRG)	59.98	q
16	3	Francine Gendron	Canada (CAN)	1:00.40	q
17	3	Debra Melrose	United States (USA)	1:00.46
18	1	Lai Lih-jian	Chinese Taipei (TPE)	1:01.01
19	3	Ruth Dubois	France (FRA)	1:01.12
20	2	Dominique Le Disset	France (FRA)	1:01.22
21	4	Kim Whitehead	United States (USA)	1:01.33
22	4	Andrea Wachter	Canada (CAN)	1:02.28
23	4	Célestine N'Drin	Ivory Coast (CIV)	1:04.91
	1	Kirsi Ulvinen	Sweden (SWE)	DQ

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 (GDR)	55.89	Q
1	2	Ellen Neumann	East Germany (GDR)	55.89	Q
3	2	Esther Mahr	United States (USA)	56.16	Q
4	1	Petra Pfaff	East Germany (GDR)	56.78	Q
5	1	Mary Appleby	Ireland (IRL)	57.06	Q
6	2	Christine Warden	Great Britain & N.I. (GBR)	57.26	Q
7	1	Hilde Frederiksen	Norway (NOR)	57.44	Q
8	2	Lynette Foreman	Australia (AUS)	57.46	Q
9	2	Rosa Colorado	Spain (ESP)	57.47
10	1	Montserrat Pujol	Spain (ESP)	57.72
11	2	Olga Commandeur	Netherlands (NED)	57.93	NR
12	1	Helle Sichlau	Denmark (DEN)	58.44
13	2	Simone Büngener	West Germany (FRG)	59.11
14	2	Esther Kaufmann	Switzerland (SUI)	59.55
15	1	Susan Dalgoutté	Great Britain & N.I. (GBR)	59.85
16	1	Francine Gendron	Canada (CAN)	1:00.14

"A" final

Rank	Lane	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
	7	Bärbel Broschat	East Germany (GDR)	54.55	CR, PB
	6	Ellen Neumann	East Germany (GDR)	54.56
	8	Petra Pfaff	East Germany (GDR)	55.84
4	5	Mary Appleby	Ireland (IRL)	56.51
5	1	Esther Mahr	United States (USA)	56.81
6	4	Hilde Frederiksen	Norway (NOR)	56.85
7	3	Lynette Foreman	Australia (AUS)	58.24
	2	Christine Warden	Great Britain & N.I. (GBR)	DQ

"B" final

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Rosa Colorado	Spain (ESP)	57.51	DQ, doping
1	Helle Sichlau	Denmark (DEN)	58.03
2	Montserrat Pujol	Spain (ESP)	58.38
4	Simone Büngener	West Germany (FRG)	58.77
5	Susan Dalgoutté	Great Britain & N.I. (GBR)	59.31
6	Esther Kaufmann	Switzerland (SUI)	59.41
7	Francine Gendron	Canada (CAN)	59.61
	Olga Commandeur	Netherlands (NED)	DNF

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 (POR)	9:04.7	Q
1	2	Birgit Friedmann	West Germany (FRG)	9:04.7	Q
3	2	Breda Pergar	Yugoslavia (YUG)	9:04.9	Q
4	2	Karoline Nemetz	Sweden (SWE)	9:04.9	Q
5	2	Joelle Debrouwer	France (FRA)	9:05.0	Q
6	2	Penny Werthner	Canada (CAN)	9:05.8	Q
7	1	Charlotte Teske	West Germany (FRG)	9:06.1	Q
8	1	Ingrid Kristiansen	Norway (NOR)	9:06.4	Q
9	1	Eva Ernström	Sweden (SWE)	9:06.5	Q
10	2	Wendy Smith	Great Britain & N.I. (GBR)	9:07.3	q
11	1	Geri Fitch	Canada (CAN)	9:07.6	Q
12	1	Mary Shea	United States (USA)	9:09.4	q
13	2	Julie Shea	United States (USA)	9:11.4
14	2	Fionnuala Morrish	Ireland (IRL)	9:13.8
15	1	Anat Meiri	Israel (ISR)	9:26.7
16	1	Anne Audain	New Zealand (NZL)	9:26.8
17	1	Brenda Webb	United States (USA)	9:27.6
18	2	Olga Caccaviello	Argentina (ARG)	10:01.2

Final

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
	Birgit Friedmann	West Germany (FRG)	8:48.05	CR, PB
	Karoline Nemetz	Sweden (SWE)	8:50.22
	Ingrid Kristiansen	Norway (NOR)	8:58.8
4	Joelle Debrouwer	France (FRA)	8:59.0
5	Breda Pergar	Yugoslavia (YUG)	8:59.7
6	Penny Werthner	Canada (CAN)	9:03.5
7	Charlotte Teske	West Germany (FRG)	9:04.3
8	Eva Ernström	Sweden (SWE)	9:07.7
9	Aurora Cunha	Portugal (POR)	9:11.2
10	Mary Shea	United States (USA)	9:13.7
11	Geri Fitch	Canada (CAN)	9:37.6
	Wendy Smith	Great Britain & N.I. (GBR)	DNF

10,000 metres results

Held alongside the men's international Netherlands vs Ireland vs Wales match, the event saw some invitation events for women which are not considered part of the World Championships.^[7] Nevertheless, the 10,000 metres appear in IAAF statistics as it was not part of the Olympic programme at the time.^[8]

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Kath Binns	Great Britain	32:57.17	NR
2	Fionnuala Morrish	Ireland	33:51.7
3	Magda Ilands	Belgium	34:25.3
4	Marja Wokke	Netherlands	35:28.9

Participation

•  Argentina (1)
•  Australia (1)
•  Canada (4)
•  Chinese Taipei (1)
•  Denmark (1)
•  East Germany (3)
•  France (3)
•  Great Britain and Northern Ireland (3)
•  Ireland (2)
•  Israel (1)
•  Ivory Coast (1)
•  Netherlands (1)
•  New Zealand (1)
•  Norway (2)
•  Portugal (1)
•  Spain (2)
•  Sweden (3)
•  Switzerland (1)
•  United States (6)
•  West Germany (3)
•  Yugoslavia (1)

References

1. Archive of Past Events. IAAF. Retrieved on 2013-09-08.
2. IAAF World Championships in Athletics. GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 2013-09-08.
3. Matthews, Peter (2012). Historical Dictionary of Track and Field (pg. 217). Scarecrow Press (eBook). Retrieved on 2013-09-08.
4. "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.
5. 1st IAAF World Championships in Athletics. IAAF. Retrieved on 2013-09-08.
6. IAAF Statistics Book Moscow 2013 (archived). IAAF (2013). Retrieved on 2015-07-06.
7. "18-08-1980"%29&redirect=true&resultscoll=dddtitel&identifier=ABCDDD:010879955:mpeg21:p011&rowid=1&pres%5Bmaxperpage%5D=36 "Interland in cijfers". De Volkskrant (in Dutch). 18 August 1980. p. 11. Retrieved 11 March 2023.
8. IAAF Statistics Book Moscow 2013 (pg. 234). IAAF/AFTS (2013). Edited by Mark Butler. Retrieved on 2013-09-09.

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