A jubilant Sanya Richards in Athens (© Getty Images)
With the IAAF/VTB Bank Continental Cup in Split, Croatia (4-5 September 2010) on the horizon, we continue our countdown with a look back at the top moments of the event which preceded it, the IAAF World Cup in Athletics. Renowned BBC athletics statistician and IAAF media consultant Mark Butler gives us his take on the Top-10 moments on the women's side of the programme.
1. 1977 Women’s 400m
Marita Koch had some great moments at the World Cup including her current World 400m record in 1985 (see below), but eight years earlier she was involved in a classic race which she did not win. In it she faced Europe’s Irena Szewinska who for many at the time was the world’s greatest woman athlete. Koch was at the beginning of her career, Szewinska was counting down to the end. Who would be the best at this overlap of the eras ? The weather was perfect, as was the draw (Koch in three, Szewinska in four) and a massive crowd was in place for the start of the final day’s session.
The East German (or “citizen of the GDR” as they preferred) closed down on the Pole as both drew clear from the field in the first half. Then Koch went for broke and stole into a 3m lead as she entered the straight. It looked as if she would go further away but then Szewinska responded. The gap grew no more, then started to close gradually. It was still anybody’s race between the two women who usually won by big margins. Both fought hard but the momentum was with Szewisnka who edged in front to win in 49.52, then the second-fastest of all time. Apart from the West German victories, there were no louder cheers in Düsseldorf than those for Szewinska.
2. 1979 Women’s Sprints
I don’t think Evelyn Ashford has ever quite got the credit for the way she redefined women’s sprinting in 1979. For years it had been the case that East German and certainly European women were overwhelmingly dominant in the sprints. Now it is quite rare to see Europeans in global championship finals, let alone win medals. It was Ashford who started the pendulum swinging in Montréal. She took on the two legendary figures of the GDR system – Marita Koch and Marlies Göhr – and beat them hands down.
In the 200m she was in lane eight with Koch in one, so it wasn’t easy to see who had won until the tiny American crossed the line a metre or so in front in an American record of 21.83. This was the second-fastest ever and way inside her previous best of 22.27. Koch’s 22.02 was the third fastest in history and a lane one world best at the time. In the 100m Ashford was drawn right next to Göhr in lanes seven and eight. The two were level for the first half of the race before Ashford moved away for another clearcut victory. Curiously, she showed little emotion after either win and looked far less excited than we had been by her revolutionary performances. Nevertheless, this was the story of the second IAAF?World Cup. For the first time in a decade, the world’s fastest woman was an American.
3. 1985 Women’s 400m
In the days before live internet sports coverage, I was one of the few people in Britain lucky enough to see the Canberra World Cup live as the pictures came in overnight to the BBC?TV?Centre in London. When our colleagues arrived to do their voiceovers, we made them guess which two world records had fallen on the final day. The answer was the women’s 400m and 4x100m, and both still stand almost 25 years later.
One of the more exciting features of the World Cup is that the best athletes can get the worst lanes, which is what already happened to Marita Koch in the Canberra 200m. Yet she won that race so clearly from lane one that we expected something special in the one-lap race two days later. This time she had the luxury of lane two with world leader Olga Vladykina in one and World Champion Jarmila Kratochvilová in seven. The East German ran as if no one else was in the race. Her progress was all the more dramatic as the stagger unwound, with those outside her being passed rapidly. These included Kratochvilová at around the 200m point which was reached in 22.4. You are not supposed to do to a World Cup field what Koch was doing. The sun-baked crowd buzzed as she entered the straight with Vladykina in tow and the rest nowhere. Koch had already clocked the fastest ever time at 300m (34.1), yet she kept going strongly. Spurred on perhaps after a glance to her inside which revealed that the Ukrainian was also running the race of her life. It looked like a world record effort and the clock at the finish confirmed it was. Koch did not notice the final time immediately and had to look behind to see the figures of 47.60. She later claimed that her coach/fiancée Wolfgang Meier had predicted a time for her of between 47.55 and 47.65.
4. 1998 Women’s Long Jump
Heike Daute-Drechsler richly deserves her place in athletics history. Not only is she unquestionably the greatest woman long jumper of all-time, but she was one of the few ex-Eastern bloc superstars who prospered after the political convulsions of 1989 (and indeed for a long time after that). Her record in the World Cup proves my point, with wins in 1985, 1992 and 1998. I feel the third of these was the most significant. Competing in awfully cold conditions, she produced three 7m leaps and in doing so became the only woman to defeat Marion Jones in any event that year. Jones’s reputation has of course since been completely ruined, but that should take nothing away from Drechsler’s moment of triumph in Johannesburg. Indeed it seems even more impressive with hindsight.
5. 1989 Women’s 800m
At the 1987 World Championships, the East Germans Wodars and Wachtel had gone 1-2 and ran as a team to block Ana Quirot out of the medals. At the 1988 Olympics the two “Ws” were first and second again while Quriot was boycotted out. In Barcelona 1989, the Cuban finally got revenge. This time there was only Wodars, but she was at her very best and set off at a tremendous rate. Her splits of 26.94 at 200m, 55.07 at 400m and 1:24.48 at 600m were the sort of times we would not see again at this level until Pamela Jelimo in 2008. Yet Quirot stayed in touch then glided clear in the homestraight for victory in 1:54.44, the third quickest in history. It was the women’s athletics performance of 1989 and confirmed Quirot’s place as the Women’s Athlete of the Year.
6. 1985 Women’s 4x100m Relay
Eighty-one minutes after her 47.60 400m, Marita Koch’s club Empor Rostock had another World record in Canberra through Silke Gladisch, who ran a blindingly fast first leg in the 4x100m relay. She made up two staggers before her safe exchange to Sabine Rieger as the GDR continued to pull clear. Reiger’s pass to Ingrid Auerswald was not perfect but further ground was gained on the USSR. Auerswald to Marlies Göhr was excellent, which was expected because the pair had run the last two legs on the previous six improvements of the record. Like Koch, Göhr did not immediately realise the World record had been lowered to 41.37. She did after turning round and then the quartet celebrated together. In the process the baton was tossed away, but it was later retrieved and retained as a souvenir by Gladisch. The World record also remains in German hands even though sub-11 runs by women are so much more commonplace these days. Remember though the current stars of Jamaica and the US do not train together as frequently as was the case under the GDR regime.
7. 2006 Women’s 400m
It has become a Sanya Richards trademark that she saves the best to last. While others are looking tired at the end of the season, she is a joy to watch and we saw a brilliant example of this at the Athens World Cup. She did the 200m/400m double which had been achieved by Irena Szewinska (1977) and Marita Koch (1985), and was about as far ahead of the opposition than those two legends had been in their heyday.
She had been assigned lane seven, not one of the middle lanes which would have automatically been hers in circuit competitions. It suited her perfectly, because within a few strides there were no distractions in sight, she could concentrate on her run without the temptation of looking to see how others were progressing. Perhaps the gentler curves were also to her liking, because she ran her best ever race. The split times were lost to posterity, but we knew she was moving very quickly from the gap she had put between herself and the new European Champion, Vania Stambolova. Her reward: 48.70, the world’s quickest in 10 years and a new American record. She could have stopped at that point and still been hailed as World Athlete of the Year, but she returned the next day to handsomely defeat some of the world’s best women in the 200m.
8. 1981 Women’s Javelin Throw
At the previous month’s European Cup in Zagreb, 18-year-old Antoaneta Todorova set a stunning world record of 71.88m. In the Rome World Cup the Bulgarian immediately proved that this was no fluke with her 68.78m opener. That would have been good enough to win the competition and silence the skeptics, but she also threw 67.70m in the fourth then 70.08m in the fifth. A distance only she had ever beaten.
Rather overshadowed was GDR newcomer Petra Felke who increased her best to 66.60m for second place. She was later voted as “Miss World Cup.” Eight years later, of course, she would achieve the rather more important distinction of becoming the world’s first 80m javelin thrower.
9. 2006 Women’s 5000m
Has an athlete ever done more than necessary for victory at the World Cup than Meseret Defar in 2006? Perhaps she just felt good running on the same track in which she’d taken the Olympic title two years earlier. In the 5000m she disregarded the rest of the field which included European silver medallist Liliya Shobukhova. Not for her the sit-and-kick tactics of Yifter or Derartu Tulu, she led through the first lap in 67.26 and kept up a reasonable pace which gained an average of two seconds per lap on her opponents. So she ended with a record-breaking winning margin of 14:26.22 and even finished with a snappy 30.00 last 200m.
10. 1992 Women’s Discus Throw
I don’t think the women’s discus often makes it on to lists of athletics highlights, but this event shone through the generally moderate results which were registered at the 1992 World Cup. It was a good year for Cuban women throwers. Belsy Laza won the shot put the day before and now new Olympic Champion Maritza Martén confirmed her place as the world’s number one. But whereas Laza needed a put of only 19.19m, Martén’s winning mark was 69.30m. Martén had to throw well because defending World Cup champion Ilke Wyludda was in form. She led with 67.74m in round two, improved to 67.80m in the third. The Cuban went in front with 68.32m in the fourth and then her winner in the last. Wyludda was magnificent in defeat with two more efforts in the 67s.
Mark Butler for the IAAF
1. 1977 Women’s 400m
Marita Koch had some great moments at the World Cup including her current World 400m record in 1985 (see below), but eight years earlier she was involved in a classic race which she did not win. In it she faced Europe’s Irena Szewinska who for many at the time was the world’s greatest woman athlete. Koch was at the beginning of her career, Szewinska was counting down to the end. Who would be the best at this overlap of the eras ? The weather was perfect, as was the draw (Koch in three, Szewinska in four) and a massive crowd was in place for the start of the final day’s session.
The East German (or “citizen of the GDR” as they preferred) closed down on the Pole as both drew clear from the field in the first half. Then Koch went for broke and stole into a 3m lead as she entered the straight. It looked as if she would go further away but then Szewinska responded. The gap grew no more, then started to close gradually. It was still anybody’s race between the two women who usually won by big margins. Both fought hard but the momentum was with Szewisnka who edged in front to win in 49.52, then the second-fastest of all time. Apart from the West German victories, there were no louder cheers in Düsseldorf than those for Szewinska.
2. 1979 Women’s Sprints
I don’t think Evelyn Ashford has ever quite got the credit for the way she redefined women’s sprinting in 1979. For years it had been the case that East German and certainly European women were overwhelmingly dominant in the sprints. Now it is quite rare to see Europeans in global championship finals, let alone win medals. It was Ashford who started the pendulum swinging in Montréal. She took on the two legendary figures of the GDR system – Marita Koch and Marlies Göhr – and beat them hands down.
In the 200m she was in lane eight with Koch in one, so it wasn’t easy to see who had won until the tiny American crossed the line a metre or so in front in an American record of 21.83. This was the second-fastest ever and way inside her previous best of 22.27. Koch’s 22.02 was the third fastest in history and a lane one world best at the time. In the 100m Ashford was drawn right next to Göhr in lanes seven and eight. The two were level for the first half of the race before Ashford moved away for another clearcut victory. Curiously, she showed little emotion after either win and looked far less excited than we had been by her revolutionary performances. Nevertheless, this was the story of the second IAAF?World Cup. For the first time in a decade, the world’s fastest woman was an American.
3. 1985 Women’s 400m
In the days before live internet sports coverage, I was one of the few people in Britain lucky enough to see the Canberra World Cup live as the pictures came in overnight to the BBC?TV?Centre in London. When our colleagues arrived to do their voiceovers, we made them guess which two world records had fallen on the final day. The answer was the women’s 400m and 4x100m, and both still stand almost 25 years later.
One of the more exciting features of the World Cup is that the best athletes can get the worst lanes, which is what already happened to Marita Koch in the Canberra 200m. Yet she won that race so clearly from lane one that we expected something special in the one-lap race two days later. This time she had the luxury of lane two with world leader Olga Vladykina in one and World Champion Jarmila Kratochvilová in seven. The East German ran as if no one else was in the race. Her progress was all the more dramatic as the stagger unwound, with those outside her being passed rapidly. These included Kratochvilová at around the 200m point which was reached in 22.4. You are not supposed to do to a World Cup field what Koch was doing. The sun-baked crowd buzzed as she entered the straight with Vladykina in tow and the rest nowhere. Koch had already clocked the fastest ever time at 300m (34.1), yet she kept going strongly. Spurred on perhaps after a glance to her inside which revealed that the Ukrainian was also running the race of her life. It looked like a world record effort and the clock at the finish confirmed it was. Koch did not notice the final time immediately and had to look behind to see the figures of 47.60. She later claimed that her coach/fiancée Wolfgang Meier had predicted a time for her of between 47.55 and 47.65.
4. 1998 Women’s Long Jump
Heike Daute-Drechsler richly deserves her place in athletics history. Not only is she unquestionably the greatest woman long jumper of all-time, but she was one of the few ex-Eastern bloc superstars who prospered after the political convulsions of 1989 (and indeed for a long time after that). Her record in the World Cup proves my point, with wins in 1985, 1992 and 1998. I feel the third of these was the most significant. Competing in awfully cold conditions, she produced three 7m leaps and in doing so became the only woman to defeat Marion Jones in any event that year. Jones’s reputation has of course since been completely ruined, but that should take nothing away from Drechsler’s moment of triumph in Johannesburg. Indeed it seems even more impressive with hindsight.
5. 1989 Women’s 800m
At the 1987 World Championships, the East Germans Wodars and Wachtel had gone 1-2 and ran as a team to block Ana Quirot out of the medals. At the 1988 Olympics the two “Ws” were first and second again while Quriot was boycotted out. In Barcelona 1989, the Cuban finally got revenge. This time there was only Wodars, but she was at her very best and set off at a tremendous rate. Her splits of 26.94 at 200m, 55.07 at 400m and 1:24.48 at 600m were the sort of times we would not see again at this level until Pamela Jelimo in 2008. Yet Quirot stayed in touch then glided clear in the homestraight for victory in 1:54.44, the third quickest in history. It was the women’s athletics performance of 1989 and confirmed Quirot’s place as the Women’s Athlete of the Year.
6. 1985 Women’s 4x100m Relay
Eighty-one minutes after her 47.60 400m, Marita Koch’s club Empor Rostock had another World record in Canberra through Silke Gladisch, who ran a blindingly fast first leg in the 4x100m relay. She made up two staggers before her safe exchange to Sabine Rieger as the GDR continued to pull clear. Reiger’s pass to Ingrid Auerswald was not perfect but further ground was gained on the USSR. Auerswald to Marlies Göhr was excellent, which was expected because the pair had run the last two legs on the previous six improvements of the record. Like Koch, Göhr did not immediately realise the World record had been lowered to 41.37. She did after turning round and then the quartet celebrated together. In the process the baton was tossed away, but it was later retrieved and retained as a souvenir by Gladisch. The World record also remains in German hands even though sub-11 runs by women are so much more commonplace these days. Remember though the current stars of Jamaica and the US do not train together as frequently as was the case under the GDR regime.
7. 2006 Women’s 400m
It has become a Sanya Richards trademark that she saves the best to last. While others are looking tired at the end of the season, she is a joy to watch and we saw a brilliant example of this at the Athens World Cup. She did the 200m/400m double which had been achieved by Irena Szewinska (1977) and Marita Koch (1985), and was about as far ahead of the opposition than those two legends had been in their heyday.
She had been assigned lane seven, not one of the middle lanes which would have automatically been hers in circuit competitions. It suited her perfectly, because within a few strides there were no distractions in sight, she could concentrate on her run without the temptation of looking to see how others were progressing. Perhaps the gentler curves were also to her liking, because she ran her best ever race. The split times were lost to posterity, but we knew she was moving very quickly from the gap she had put between herself and the new European Champion, Vania Stambolova. Her reward: 48.70, the world’s quickest in 10 years and a new American record. She could have stopped at that point and still been hailed as World Athlete of the Year, but she returned the next day to handsomely defeat some of the world’s best women in the 200m.
8. 1981 Women’s Javelin Throw
At the previous month’s European Cup in Zagreb, 18-year-old Antoaneta Todorova set a stunning world record of 71.88m. In the Rome World Cup the Bulgarian immediately proved that this was no fluke with her 68.78m opener. That would have been good enough to win the competition and silence the skeptics, but she also threw 67.70m in the fourth then 70.08m in the fifth. A distance only she had ever beaten.
Rather overshadowed was GDR newcomer Petra Felke who increased her best to 66.60m for second place. She was later voted as “Miss World Cup.” Eight years later, of course, she would achieve the rather more important distinction of becoming the world’s first 80m javelin thrower.
9. 2006 Women’s 5000m
Has an athlete ever done more than necessary for victory at the World Cup than Meseret Defar in 2006? Perhaps she just felt good running on the same track in which she’d taken the Olympic title two years earlier. In the 5000m she disregarded the rest of the field which included European silver medallist Liliya Shobukhova. Not for her the sit-and-kick tactics of Yifter or Derartu Tulu, she led through the first lap in 67.26 and kept up a reasonable pace which gained an average of two seconds per lap on her opponents. So she ended with a record-breaking winning margin of 14:26.22 and even finished with a snappy 30.00 last 200m.
10. 1992 Women’s Discus Throw
I don’t think the women’s discus often makes it on to lists of athletics highlights, but this event shone through the generally moderate results which were registered at the 1992 World Cup. It was a good year for Cuban women throwers. Belsy Laza won the shot put the day before and now new Olympic Champion Maritza Martén confirmed her place as the world’s number one. But whereas Laza needed a put of only 19.19m, Martén’s winning mark was 69.30m. Martén had to throw well because defending World Cup champion Ilke Wyludda was in form. She led with 67.74m in round two, improved to 67.80m in the third. The Cuban went in front with 68.32m in the fourth and then her winner in the last. Wyludda was magnificent in defeat with two more efforts in the 67s.
Mark Butler for the IAAF
