1983 World Championships in Athletics

The 1st World Championships in Athletics (Template:Langx; Template:Langx) were run under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations and were held at the Olympic Stadium in Helsinki, Finland between 7 and 14 August 1983. Despite the existence of previously held championship events in both 1976 and 1980, this 1983 championship was marked as the inaugural World Championship.

Summary

The championships at Helsinki Olympic Stadium, August 1983

Carl Lewis at the championships

The overall medal table was a closely contested affair. East Germany took the most gold medals (10) over the first championships and finished with a total of 22 medals. The United States had the second number of gold medals, with eight, and also had the greatest overall medal haul, having won 24 medals. The Soviet Union won one more medal than the East Germans and had six golds, although almost half of their podium finishers were bronze medalists. Twenty-five nations reached the medal tally at the inaugural competition, with all six continents being represented. During the early 1980s this was the top venue in which Soviet Bloc athletes competed against American athletes due to the American-led boycott of the 1980 Olympics in Moscow and the retaliatory Soviet Bloc boycott of the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles.

Carl Lewis won both the 100 metres and the long jump, and finished the competition by anchoring the 4 × 100 metres relay team to a world record time, along with the 200 metres champion Calvin Smith, and bronze medallists Emmit King and Willie Gault. Jarmila Kratochvílová dominated the 400 and 800 metres events, setting a world record of 47.99 seconds. Mary Decker enjoyed her best competition performance, taking the golds in the women's 1500 and 3000 metres. Other prominent athletes included Marita Koch, who won the 200 m and both relay golds, as well as the 100 m silver medal. Sergey Bubka won the first of his six consecutive World Championship gold medals in the pole vault.

Men's results

Track

postage stamp from Finland issued in 1983

1983 | 1987 | 1991 | 1993 | 1995

100 m Template:DetailsLink	Carl Lewis Template:Flag	10.07	Calvin Smith Template:Flag	10.21	Emmit King Template:Flag	10.24
200 m Template:DetailsLink	Calvin Smith Template:Flag	20.14	Elliott Quow Template:Flag	20.41	Pietro Mennea Template:Flag	20.51
400 m Template:DetailsLink	Bert Cameron Template:Flag	45.05	Michael Franks Template:Flag	45.22	Sunder Nix Template:Flag	45.24
800 m Template:DetailsLink	Willi Wülbeck Template:Flag	1:43.65	Rob Druppers Template:Flag	1:44.20	Joaquim Cruz Template:Flag	1:44.27
1500 m Template:DetailsLink	Steve Cram Template:Flag	3:41.59	Steve Scott Template:Flag	3:41.87	Saïd Aouita Template:Flag	3:42.02
5000 m Template:DetailsLink	Eamonn Coghlan Template:Flag	13:28.53	Werner Schildhauer Template:Flag	13:30.20	Martti Vainio Template:Flag	13:30.34
10,000 m Template:DetailsLink	Alberto Cova Template:Flag	28:01.04	Werner Schildhauer Template:Flag	28:01.18	Hansjörg Kunze Template:Flag	28:01.26
Marathon Template:DetailsLink	Rob de Castella Template:Flag	2:10:03	Kebede Balcha Template:Flag	2:10:27	Waldemar Cierpinski Template:Flag	2:10:37
110 m hurdles Template:DetailsLink	Greg Foster Template:Flag	13.42	Arto Bryggare Template:Flag	13.46	Willie Gault Template:Flag	13.48
400 m hurdles Template:DetailsLink	Edwin Moses Template:Flag	47.50	Harald Schmid Template:Flag	48.61	Aleksandr Kharlov Template:Flag	49.03
3000 m st. Template:DetailsLink	Patriz Ilg Template:Flag	8:15.06	Bogusław Mamiński Template:Flag	8:17.03	Colin Reitz Template:Flag	8:17.75
20 km walk Template:DetailsLink	Ernesto Canto Template:Flag	1:20:49	Jozef Pribilinec Template:Flag	1:20:59	Yevgeniy Yevsyukov Template:Flag	1:21:08
50 km walk Template:DetailsLink	Ronald Weigel Template:Flag	3:43:08	José Marín Template:Flag	3:46:32	Sergey Yung Template:Flag	3:49:03
4 × 100 m relay Template:DetailsLink	Template:Flagteam Emmit King Willie Gault Calvin Smith Carl Lewis	37.86 (WR)	Template:Flagteam Stefano Tilli Carlo Simionato Pierfrancesco Pavoni Pietro Mennea	38.37 (NR)	Template:Flagteam Andrey Prokofyev Nikolay Sidorov Vladimir Muravyov Viktor Bryzgin	38.41
4 × 400 m relay Template:DetailsLink	Template:Flagteam Sergey Lovachov Aleksandr Troshchilo Nikolay Chernetskiy Viktor Markin	3:00.79	Template:Flagteam Erwin Skamrahl Jörg Vaihinger Harald Schmid Hartmut Weber Martin Weppler* Edgar Nakladal*	3:01.83	Template:Flagteam Ainsley Bennett Garry Cook Todd Bennett Phil Brown Kriss Akabusi*	3:03.53
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Note: * Indicates athletes who ran in preliminary rounds.

Field

1983 | 1987 | 1991 | 1993 | 1995

High jump Template:DetailsLink	Template:Flagmedalist	2.32	Template:Flagmedalist	2.32	Template:Flagmedalist	2.29
Pole vault Template:DetailsLink	Template:Flagmedalist	5.70	Template:Flagmedalist	5.60	Template:Flagmedalist	5.60
Long jump Template:DetailsLink	Template:Flagmedalist	8.55	Template:Flagmedalist	8.29	Template:Flagmedalist	8.12
Triple jump Template:DetailsLink	Template:Flagmedalist	17.42	Template:Flagmedalist	17.18	Template:Flagmedalist	17.18
Shot put Template:DetailsLink	Template:Flagmedalist	21.39	Template:Flagmedalist	21.16	Template:Flagmedalist	20.98
Discus throw Template:DetailsLink	Template:Flagmedalist	67.72	Template:Flagmedalist	67.36	Template:Flagmedalist	66.08
Hammer throw Template:DetailsLink	Template:Flagmedalist	82.68	Template:Flagmedalist	80.94	Template:Flagmedalist	79.42
Javelin throw Template:DetailsLink	Template:Flagmedalist	89.48	Template:Flagmedalist	85.60	Template:Flagmedalist	85.58
Decathlon Template:DetailsLink	Template:Flagmedalist	8666	Template:Flagmedalist	8561	Template:Flagmedalist	8478
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Women's results

Track

1983 | 1987 | 1991 | 1993 | 1995

100 m Template:DetailsLink	Template:Flagmedalist	10.97 (CR)	Template:Flagmedalist	11.02	Template:Flagmedalist	11.06
200 m Template:DetailsLink	Template:Flagmedalist	22.13	Template:Flagmedalist	22.19	Template:Flagmedalist	22.37
400 m Template:DetailsLink	Template:Flagmedalist	47.99 (WR)	Template:Flagmedalist	48.59 (PB)	Template:Flagmedalist	49.19
800 m Template:DetailsLink	Template:Flagmedalist	1:54.68	Template:Flagmedalist	1:56.11	Template:Flagmedalist	1:57.58
1500 m Template:DetailsLink	Template:Flagmedalist	4:00.90	Template:Flagmedalist	4:01.19	Template:Flagmedalist	4:02.25
3000 m Template:DetailsLink	Template:Flagmedalist	8:34.62	Template:Flagmedalist	8:35.11	Template:Flagmedalist	8:35.13
Marathon Template:DetailsLink	Template:Flagmedalist	2:28:09	Template:Flagmedalist	2:31:09	Template:Flagmedalist	2:31:13
100 m hurdles Template:DetailsLink	Template:Flagmedalist	12.35	Template:Flagmedalist	12.42	Template:Flagmedalist	12.62
400 m hurdles Template:DetailsLink	Template:Flagmedalist	54.14	Template:Flagmedalist	54.15	Template:Flagmedalist	54.55
4 × 100 m relay Template:DetailsLink	Template:Flagteam Silke Gladisch Marita Koch Ingrid Auerswald Marlies Göhr	41.76	Template:Flagteam Joan Baptiste Kathy Cook Beverley Callender Shirley Thomas	42.71	Template:Flagteam Leleith Hodges Jacqueline Pusey Juliet Cuthbert Merlene Ottey	42.73
4 × 400 m relay Template:DetailsLink	Template:Flagteam Kerstin Walther Sabine Busch Marita Koch Dagmar Rübsam Undine Bremer* Ellen Fiedler*	3:19.73	Template:Flagteam Taťána Kocembová Milena Matějkovičová Zuzana Moravčíková Jarmila Kratochvílová	3:20.32	Template:Flagteam Yelena Korban Marina Ivanova Irina Baskakova Mariya Pinigina	3:21.16
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Note: * Indicates athletes who ran in preliminary rounds.

Field

1983 | 1987 | 1991 | 1993 | 1995

High jump Template:DetailsLink	Template:Flagmedalist	2.01	Template:Flagmedalist	1.99	Template:Flagmedalist	1.95
Long jump Template:DetailsLink	Template:Flagmedalist	7.27	Template:Flagmedalist	7.15	Template:Flagmedalist	7.04
Shot put Template:DetailsLink	Template:Flagmedalist	21.05	Template:Flagmedalist	20.70	Template:Flagmedalist	20.56
Discus throw Template:DetailsLink	Template:Flagmedalist	68.94	Template:Flagmedalist	67.44	Template:Flagmedalist	66.44
Javelin throw Template:DetailsLink	Template:Flagmedalist	70.82	Template:Flagmedalist	69.14	Template:Flagmedalist	65.72
Heptathlon Template:DetailsLink	Template:Flagmedalist	6714	Template:Flagmedalist	6662	Template:Flagmedalist	6532
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Medal table

Marathon bronze medallist and reigning Olympic champion Waldemar Cierpinski (DDR) celebrates with gold medal winner Robert de Castella (AUS).

See also

• 1983 in athletics (track and field)

References

• IAAF

External links

• Summary at SVT's open archive