1983 World Championships in Athletics

1st World Championships in Athletics

Host city	Helsinki, Finland
Nations	153
Athletes	1,355
Events	41
Dates	7–14 August 1983
Opened by	President Mauno Koivisto
Main venue	Helsinki Olympic Stadium
← 1980 Sittard 1987 Rome →

The 1st World Championships in Athletics (Finnish: Yleisurheilun maailmanmestaruuskilpailut 1983; Swedish: Världsmästerskapen i friidrott 1983) 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.

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 metres 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 metres 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.

1983 | 1987 | 1991 | 1993 | 1995

Games	Gold		Silver		Bronze
100 m details	Carl Lewis  United States	10.07	Calvin Smith  United States	10.21	Emmit King  United States	10.24
200 m details	Calvin Smith  United States	20.14	Elliott Quow  United States	20.41	Pietro Mennea  Italy	20.51
400 m details	Bert Cameron  Jamaica	45.05	Michael Franks  United States	45.22	Sunder Nix  United States	45.24
800 m details	Willi Wülbeck  West Germany	1:43.65	Rob Druppers  Netherlands	1:44.20	Joaquim Cruz  Brazil	1:44.27
1,500 m details	Steve Cram  Great Britain	3:41.59	Steve Scott  United States	3:41.87	Saïd Aouita  Morocco	3:42.02
5,000 m details	Eamonn Coghlan  Ireland	13:28.53	Werner Schildhauer  East Germany	13:30.20	Martti Vainio  Finland	13:30.34
10,000 m details	Alberto Cova  Italy	28:01.04	Werner Schildhauer  East Germany	28:01.18	Hansjörg Kunze  East Germany	28:01.26
Marathon details	Rob de Castella  Australia	2:10:03	Kebede Balcha  Ethiopia	2:10:27	Waldemar Cierpinski  East Germany	2:10:37
110 m hurdles details	Greg Foster  United States	13.42	Arto Bryggare  Finland	13.46	Willie Gault  United States	13.48
400 m hurdles details	Edwin Moses  United States	47.50	Harald Schmid  West Germany	48.61	Aleksandr Kharlov  Soviet Union	49.03
3,000 m st. details	Patriz Ilg  West Germany	8:15.06	Bogusław Mamiński  Poland	8:17.03	Colin Reitz  Great Britain	8:17.75
20 km walk details	Ernesto Canto  Mexico	1:20:49	Jozef Pribilinec  Czechoslovakia	1:20:59	Yevgeniy Yevsyukov  Soviet Union	1:21:08
50 km walk details	Ronald Weigel  East Germany	3:43:08	José Marín  Spain	3:46:32	Sergey Yung  Soviet Union	3:49:03
4 × 100 m relay details	United States (USA) Emmit King Willie Gault Calvin Smith Carl Lewis	37.86 (WR)	Italy (ITA) Stefano Tilli Carlo Simionato Pierfrancesco Pavoni Pietro Mennea	38.37 (NR)	Soviet Union (URS) Andrey Prokofyev Nikolay Sidorov Vladimir Muravyov Viktor Bryzgin	38.41
4 × 400 m relay details	Soviet Union (URS) Sergey Lovachov Aleksandr Troshchilo Nikolay Chernetskiy Viktor Markin	3:00.79	West Germany (FRG) Erwin Skamrahl Jörg Vaihinger Harald Schmid Hartmut Weber Martin Weppler* Edgar Nakladal*	3:01.83	Great Britain (GBR) Ainsley Bennett Garry Cook Todd Bennett Phil Brown Kriss Akabusi*	3:03.53
WR world record | AR area record | CR championship record | GR games record | NR national record | OR Olympic record | PB personal best | SB season best | WL world leading (in a given season)

Note: * Indicates athletes who ran in preliminary rounds.

1983 | 1987 | 1991 | 1993 | 1995

Games	Gold		Silver		Bronze
High jump details	Hennadiy Avdyeyenko  Soviet Union	2.32	Tyke Peacock  United States	2.32	Zhu Jianhua  China	2.29
Pole vault details	Sergey Bubka  Soviet Union	5.70	Konstantin Volkov  Soviet Union	5.60	Atanas Tarev  Bulgaria	5.60
Long jump details	Carl Lewis  United States	8.55	Jason Grimes  United States	8.29	Mike Conley  United States	8.12
Triple jump details	Zdzisław Hoffmann  Poland	17.42	Willie Banks  United States	17.18	Ajayi Agbebaku  Nigeria	17.18
Shot put details	Edward Sarul  Poland	21.39	Ulf Timmermann  East Germany	21.16	Remigius Machura  Czechoslovakia	20.98
Discus throw details	Imrich Bugár  Czechoslovakia	67.72	Luis Delís  Cuba	67.36	Géjza Valent  Czechoslovakia	66.08
Hammer throw details	Sergey Litvinov  Soviet Union	82.68	Yuriy Sedykh  Soviet Union	80.94	Zdzisław Kwaśny  Poland	79.42
Javelin throw details	Detlef Michel  East Germany	89.48	Tom Petranoff  United States	85.60	Dainis Kūla  Soviet Union	85.58
Decathlon details	Daley Thompson  Great Britain	8666	Jürgen Hingsen  West Germany	8561	Siegfried Wentz  West Germany	8478
WR world record | AR area record | CR championship record | GR games record | NR national record | OR Olympic record | PB personal best | SB season best | WL world leading (in a given season)

1983 | 1987 | 1991 | 1993 | 1995

Games	Gold		Silver		Bronze
100 m details	Marlies Göhr  East Germany	10.97 (CR)	Marita Koch  East Germany	11.02	Diane Williams  United States	11.06
200 m details	Marita Koch  East Germany	22.13	Merlene Ottey  Jamaica	22.19	Kathy Cook  Great Britain	22.37
400 m details	Jarmila Kratochvílová  Czechoslovakia	47.99 (WR)	Taťána Kocembová  Czechoslovakia	48.59 (PB)	Mariya Pinigina  Soviet Union	49.19
800 m details	Jarmila Kratochvílová  Czechoslovakia	1:54.68	Lyubov Gurina  Soviet Union	1:56.11	Yekaterina Podkopayeva  Soviet Union	1:57.58
1,500 m details	Mary Decker  United States	4:00.90	Zamira Zaytseva  Soviet Union	4:01.19	Yekaterina Podkopayeva  Soviet Union	4:02.25
3,000 m details	Mary Decker  United States	8:34.62	Brigitte Kraus  West Germany	8:35.11	Tatyana Kazankina  Soviet Union	8:35.13
Marathon details	Grete Waitz  Norway	2:28:09	Marianne Dickerson  United States	2:31:09	Raisa Smekhnova  Soviet Union	2:31:13
100 m hurdles details	Bettine Jahn  East Germany	12.35	Kerstin Knabe  East Germany	12.42	Ginka Zagorcheva  Bulgaria	12.62
400 m hurdles details	Yekaterina Fesenko  Soviet Union	54.14	Ana Ambrazienė  Soviet Union	54.15	Ellen Fiedler  East Germany	54.55
4 × 100 m relay details	East Germany (GDR) Silke Gladisch Marita Koch Ingrid Auerswald Marlies Göhr	41.76	Great Britain (GBR) Joan Baptiste Kathy Cook Beverley Callender Shirley Thomas	42.71	Jamaica (JAM) Leleith Hodges Jacqueline Pusey Juliet Cuthbert Merlene Ottey	42.73
4 × 400 m relay details	East Germany (GDR) Kerstin Walther Sabine Busch Marita Koch Dagmar Rübsam Undine Bremer* Ellen Fiedler*	3:19.73	Czechoslovakia (TCH) Taťána Kocembová Milena Matějkovičová Zuzana Moravčíková Jarmila Kratochvílová	3:20.32	Soviet Union (URS) Yelena Korban Marina Ivanova Irina Baskakova Mariya Pinigina	3:21.16
WR world record | AR area record | CR championship record | GR games record | NR national record | OR Olympic record | PB personal best | SB season best | WL world leading (in a given season)

Note: * Indicates athletes who ran in preliminary rounds.

1983 | 1987 | 1991 | 1993 | 1995

Games	Gold		Silver		Bronze
High jump details	Tamara Bykova  Soviet Union	2.01	Ulrike Meyfarth  West Germany	1.99	Louise Ritter  United States	1.95
Long jump details	Heike Daute  East Germany	7.27	Anişoara Cuşmir  Romania	7.15	Carol Lewis  United States	7.04
Shot put details	Helena Fibingerová  Czechoslovakia	21.05	Helma Knorscheidt  East Germany	20.70	Ilona Slupianek  East Germany	20.56
Discus throw details	Martina Opitz  East Germany	68.94	Galina Murasova  Soviet Union	67.44	Mariya Petkova  Bulgaria	66.44
Javelin throw details	Tiina Lillak  Finland	70.82	Fatima Whitbread  Great Britain	69.14	Anna Verouli  Greece	65.72
Heptathlon details	Ramona Neubert  East Germany	6714	Sabine Paetz  East Germany	6662	Anke Vater  East Germany	6532
WR world record | AR area record | CR championship record | GR games record | NR national record | OR Olympic record | PB personal best | SB season best | WL world leading (in a given season)

  *   Host nation (Finland)

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	East Germany (GDR)	10	7	5	22
2	United States (USA)	8	9	7	24
3	Soviet Union (URS)	6	6	11	23
4	Czechoslovakia (TCH)	4	3	2	9
5	West Germany (FRG)	2	5	1	8
6	Great Britain (GBR)	2	2	3	7
7	Poland (POL)	2	1	1	4
8	Finland (FIN)*	1	1	1	3
	Italy (ITA)	1	1	1	3
	Jamaica (JAM)	1	1	1	3
11	Australia (AUS)	1	0	0	1
	Ireland (IRL)	1	0	0	1
	Mexico (MEX)	1	0	0	1
	Norway (NOR)	1	0	0	1
15	Cuba (CUB)	0	1	0	1
	Ethiopia (ETH)	0	1	0	1
	Netherlands (NED)	0	1	0	1
	Romania (ROU)	0	1	0	1
	Spain (ESP)	0	1	0	1
20	Bulgaria (BUL)	0	0	3	3
21	Brazil (BRA)	0	0	1	1
	China (CHN)	0	0	1	1
	Greece (GRE)	0	0	1	1
	Morocco (MAR)	0	0	1	1
	Nigeria (NGR)	0	0	1	1
Totals (25 entries)		41	41	41	123

• 1983 in athletics (track and field)

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