| Competing under her maiden name of Schaller, Johanna Klier had
competed in the shadow of her more illustrious East German compatriots
during the early part of the 1970's, until she came through to win the
gold medal in the 100m hurdles at the 1976 Olympic Games. This
performance elevated Johanna to the number one East German hurdler, a
position which she confirmed when she won the 100m hurdles national
title the following year, competing by then under her married name of
Klier. Johanna easily won the gold medal at the 1977 European Cup final
in Helsinki in 12.83sec, and then at the World Cup, held the following
month in Dusseldorf, she finished second in 12.86sec behind Grazyna
Rabsztyn (Poland), whose time of 12.70sec was the fastest recorded in
1977. Klier bounced back from this defeat with a strong start to the
1978 season, defeating Rabsztyn in the 60m hurdles at the European
Indoor Championships in March, and in the outdoor season, winning the
100m hurdles (see photo above) at the UK versus East Germany
match in London (Crystal Palace) on 11 June, in a UK all-comers record
of 12.89sec. Soon afterwards, she successfully defended her national
title at Karl Marx Stadt in 12.91sec. Later that year, on 1 September,
Klier won the final of the 100m hurdles at the European Championships in
Prague in a new personal best time of 12.62sec. However, the race was
declared null and void, as Rabsztyn had hit the final hurdle hard,
veering into an adjoining lane and bringing down another runner. The
race was re-run the following day without Rabsztyn, who was
disqualified, and again Klier was victorious, and again in a new
personal best of 12.62sec. Klier also won a bronze medal at Prague, as
the lead runner on the East German 4 x 100m relay team. (Ron Casey) |