The 1st World Championships in Athletics (; ) 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
thumb|The championships at [[Helsinki Olympic Stadium, August 1983]]
thumb|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
thumb|125px|postage stamp from Finland issued in 1983
1983 | 1987 | 1991 | 1993 | 1995
{|
|-
| 100 m<br />
| Carl Lewis<br /> || 10.07
| Calvin Smith<br /> || 10.21
| Emmit King<br /> || 10.24
|-
| 200 m<br />
| Calvin Smith<br /> || 20.14
| Elliott Quow<br /> || 20.41
| Pietro Mennea<br /> || 20.51
|-
| 400 m<br />
| Bert Cameron<br /> || 45.05
| Michael Franks<br /> || 45.22
| Sunder Nix<br /> || 45.24
|-
| 800 m<br />
| Willi Wülbeck<br /> || 1:43.65
| Rob Druppers<br /> || 1:44.20
| Joaquim Cruz<br /> || 1:44.27
|-
| 1500 m<br />
| Steve Cram<br /> || 3:41.59
| Steve Scott<br /> || 3:41.87
| Saïd Aouita<br /> || 3:42.02
|-
| 5000 m<br />
| Eamonn Coghlan<br /> || 13:28.53
| Werner Schildhauer<br /> || 13:30.20
| Martti Vainio<br /> || 13:30.34
|-
| 10,000 m<br />
| Alberto Cova<br /> || 28:01.04
| Werner Schildhauer<br /> || 28:01.18
| Hansjörg Kunze<br /> || 28:01.26
|-
| Marathon<br />
| Rob de Castella<br /> || 2:10:03
| Kebede Balcha<br /> || 2:10:27
| Waldemar Cierpinski<br /> || 2:10:37
|-
| 110 m hurdles<br />
| Greg Foster<br /> || 13.42
| Arto Bryggare<br /> || 13.46
| Willie Gault<br /> || 13.48
|-
| 400 m hurdles<br />
| Edwin Moses<br /> || 47.50
| Harald Schmid<br /> || 48.61
| Aleksandr Kharlov<br /> || 49.03
|-
| 3000 m st.<br />
| Patriz Ilg<br /> || 8:15.06
| Bogusław Mamiński<br /> || 8:17.03
| Colin Reitz<br /> || 8:17.75
|-
| 20 km walk <br />
| Ernesto Canto<br /> || 1:20:49
| Jozef Pribilinec<br /> || 1:20:59
| Yevgeniy Yevsyukov<br /> || 1:21:08
|-
| 50 km walk<br />
| Ronald Weigel<br /> || 3:43:08
| José Marín<br /> || 3:46:32
| Sergey Yung<br /> || 3:49:03
|-
| 4 × 100 m relay<br />
| <br>Emmit King<br />Willie Gault<br />Calvin Smith<br />Carl Lewis || 37.86<br /><small>(WR)</small>
| <br>Stefano Tilli<br />Carlo Simionato<br />Pierfrancesco Pavoni<br />Pietro Mennea || 38.37<br /><small>(NR)</small>
| <br>Andrey Prokofyev<br />Nikolay Sidorov<br />Vladimir Muravyov<br />Viktor Bryzgin || 38.41
|-
| 4 × 400 m relay<br />
| <br>Sergey Lovachov<br />Aleksandr Troshchilo<br />Nikolay Chernetskiy<br />Viktor Markin || 3:00.79
| <br>Erwin Skamrahl<br />Jörg Vaihinger<br />Harald Schmid<br />Hartmut Weber <br />Martin Weppler*<br/>Edgar Nakladal* || 3:01.83
| <br>Ainsley Bennett<br />Garry Cook<br />Todd Bennett<br />Phil Brown <br />Kriss Akabusi* || 3:03.53
|-
|- bgcolor= e8e8e8
| colspan=7 |
|}
Note: * Indicates athletes who ran in preliminary rounds.
Field
1983 | 1987 | 1991 | 1993 | 1995
{|
|-
| High jump<br />
| || 2.32
| || 2.32
| || 2.29
|-
| Pole vault<br />
| || 5.70
| || 5.60
| || 5.60
|-
| Long jump<br />
| || 8.55
| || 8.29
| || 8.12
|-
| Triple jump<br />
| || 17.42
| || 17.18
| || 17.18
|-
| Shot put<br />
| || 21.39
| || 21.16
| || 20.98
|-
| Discus throw<br />
| || 67.72
| || 67.36
| || 66.08
|-
| Hammer throw<br />
| || 82.68
| || 80.94
| || 79.42
|-
| Javelin throw<br />
| || 89.48
| || 85.60
| || 85.58
|-
| Decathlon<br />
| || 8666
| || 8561
| || 8478
|-
|- bgcolor= e8e8e8
| colspan=7 |
|}
Women's results
Track
1983 | 1987 | 1991 | 1993 | 1995
{|
|-
| 100 m<br />
| || 10.97<br /><small>(CR)</small>
| || 11.02
| || 11.06
|-
| 200 m<br />
| || 22.13
| || 22.19
| || 22.37
|-
| 400 m<br />
| || 47.99<br /><small>(WR)</small>
| || 48.59<br /><small>(PB)</small>
| || 49.19
|-
| 800 m<br />
| || 1:54.68
| || 1:56.11
| || 1:57.58
|-
| 1500 m<br />
| || 4:00.90
| || 4:01.19
| || 4:02.25
|-
| 3000 m<br />
| || 8:34.62
| || 8:35.11
| || 8:35.13
|-
| Marathon<br />
| || 2:28:09
| || 2:31:09
| || 2:31:13
|-
| 100 m hurdles<br />
| || 12.35
| || 12.42
| || 12.62
|-
| 400 m hurdles<br />
| || 54.14
| || 54.15
| || 54.55
|-
| 4 × 100 m relay<br />
| <br>Silke Gladisch<br />Marita Koch<br />Ingrid Auerswald<br />Marlies Göhr || 41.76
| <br>Joan Baptiste<br />Kathy Cook<br />Beverley Callender<br />Shirley Thomas || 42.71
| <br>Leleith Hodges<br />Jacqueline Pusey<br />Juliet Cuthbert<br />Merlene Ottey || 42.73
|-
| 4 × 400 m relay<br />
| <br>Kerstin Walther<br />Sabine Busch<br />Marita Koch<br />Dagmar Rübsam<BR>Undine Bremer*<BR>Ellen Fiedler* || 3:19.73
| <br>Taťána Kocembová<br />Milena Matějkovičová<br />Zuzana Moravčíková<br />Jarmila Kratochvílová || 3:20.32
| <br>Yelena Korban<br />Marina Ivanova<br />Irina Baskakova<br />Mariya Pinigina || 3:21.16
|-
|- bgcolor= e8e8e8
| colspan=7 |
|}
Note: * Indicates athletes who ran in preliminary rounds.
Field
1983 | 1987 | 1991 | 1993 | 1995
{|
|-
| High jump<br />
| || 2.01
| || 1.99
| || 1.95
|-
| Long jump<br />
| || 7.27
| || 7.15
| || 7.04
|-
| Shot put<br />
| || 21.05
| || 20.70
| || 20.56
|-
| Discus throw<br />
| || 68.94
| || 67.44
| || 66.44
|-
| Javelin throw<br />
| || 70.82
| || 69.14
| || 65.72
|-
| Heptathlon<br />
| || 6714
| || 6662
| || 6532
|-
|- bgcolor= e8e8e8
| colspan=7 |
|}
Medal table
thumb|upright=1.25|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