Marita KOCH

Marita Koch had a magnificent international athletics career, during which she set 11 individual and 5 relay world records. Her rise to fame as the premier 400m runner in the world coincided with the end of the career of another great sprinting legend, Irene Szewinska of Poland. Szewinska won the 400m at the 1976 Olympic Games at which the 19 year-old Koch was eliminated in the semi-finals. The rapidly improving Koch reduced her personal best a number of times in the early part of the 1977 season to 49.53sec, and narrowly defeated Szewinska in a 200m event at Nice. Their first meeting over 400m was therefore eagerly awaited, and this occurred on 4 September 1977 at the inaugural World Cup in Dusseldorf. Koch sped away and at 300m had a lead of 3 metres over Szewinska, but then Szewinska started to slowly close the gap (see photo above), eventually catching and passing her younger opponent to win in 49.52sec to Koch's 49.76sec.

In 1978 Koch had an unparalleled season, setting no fewer than 4 world records. Firstly, at Erfurt on 28 May, she broke Szewinska's 200m world record setting new time of 22.06sec. On 2 July, at the East German national championships in Leipzig, she also broke Szewinska's 400m world record with a time of 49.19sec. On 19 August at Potsdam, she improved this time even further setting another world record of 49.03sec. At the European Championships in Prague on 31 August, she annihilated a world-class field including Szewinska (3rd), winning the gold medal easily in another world record time of 48.94sec and in the process becoming the first woman to better 49 seconds for the event. She won a second gold medal three days later when she anchored the East German 4 x 400m relay team to victory in 3min 21.20sec. (Ron Casey)

 In 1979 Marita Koch continued the domination of the 200m and 400m events that she had established the previous year. On 3 June at Leipzig, she broke her own 200m world record setting a new time of 22.02sec. Just one week later, at Karl-Marx Stadt, in an international match against Canada, she ran a phenomenal time of 21.71sec, smashing her week-old world record. That mark that would not be beaten for nine years. What was even more amazing about the time was that only 45 minutes earlier, Koch had run the first leg in the East German 4 x 100m relay team which had set a new world record of 42.10sec. Koch was no less spectacular over 400m in 1979. At Potsdam on 29 July, she bettered her own world record with a time of 48.89sec, and at the European Cup, held in Turin on 4 August, she broke this time again with a stunning 48.60sec.

At the World Cup at Montreal on 24 August, she was surprisingly beaten in the 200m by Evelyn Ashford (USA), but only two hours after this defeat, she anchored the East German 4 x 400m relay team to victory in 3min 20.37sec. Two days later she easily won the 400m gold medal in a time of 48.97sec. At the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow, Koch withdrew from the 200m due to injury, but she showed little evidence of this when she won the gold medal in the 400m (see photo above at the victory ceremony) in a time of 48.88sec, the second fastest time in history. In the 4 x 400m relay, she had to make up too much of a lead set by the Soviet Union team, and despite an anchor leg of 48.3sec by Koch, East Germany had to be content with a silver medal. (Ron Casey)

During 1981 the domination of the 400m, which Marita Koch had enjoyed since 1977, began to be challenged by Czech Jarmila Kratochvilova. Koch missed most of the season through injury, although she did win the 400m and anchor the East German 4 x 400m relay team to victory a the European Cup shortly after returning to competition in August. At the World Cup held in Rome on 6 September, Kratochvilova became the first woman to beat Koch over 400m since her defeat by Irene Szewinska (Poland) at the 1977 World Cup. In the 4 x 400m relay, Koch anchored East Germany to victory for the third successive time in World Cup competition, in a time of 3min 20.62sec. Koch returned to her best in 1982, winning the 200 metres at the East German national championships in 21.76sec, the second fastest time in history behind her 21.71sec world record. In the 400m, she recorded a time of 48.77sec in an international match against the USA in July, while Kratochvilova returned a time of 48.86sec at Zurich in August.

Their meeting at the European Championships in Athens on 8 September was therefore greatly anticipated. In the 400m at Athens, Koch led from the start, speeding through the 200m mark in 22.8sec, and continued to draw away from Kratochvilova to win easily (see photo above - G Herringshaw ©). Her time was a sensational 48.16sec, which was nearly half a second better than her own world record. Three days later, Koch and Kratochvilova met again in the 4 x 400m relay. Although Kratochvilova's 47.6sec anchor leg gained Czechoslovakia second place, Kochís teammates had given her a massive three-second lead, and her 47.9sec anchor leg helped win the gold medal for East Germany in a new world record. (Ron Casey)

Marita Koch had established an impressive record at the first three world Cups in 1977, 1979 and 1981 winning four gold and three silver medals, but it wasn't until 1983 that she got the opportunity to compete in a World Championships, at the inaugural meeting in Helsinki. During 1983, Koch concentrated more on the shorter sprint distances and did not compete in her speciality event, the 400m, in which she had set six world records. At a warm-up meet for the World Championships at Berlin on 31 July, the East German 4 x 100m relay team, with Koch running second, set a new world record of 41.53sec. At Helsinki, Koch got the best start in the 100m final, but was overhauled by compatriot Marlies Gohr who won in 10.97sec to Koch's second placed time of 11.02sec. Two days later, Koch ran the second leg on East Germany's 4 x 100m relay team, which won the gold medal by nearly a full second in 41.76sec.

Four days later in the 200m final, Koch led into the straight, and just managed to hold off a late charge by Jamaican Merlene Ottey to win in 22.13sec (see above - 14th. August 1983 photo G.Herringshaw ©). Less than three hours later, in the final of the 4 x 400m relay, Koch ran a superb third leg of 48.55sec, which helped East Germany to win the gold medal. Koch was denied a chance to add to her 1980 Olympic achievements in 1984 due to the boycott by the eastern bloc countries of the Los Angeles Olympic Games. However, that didn't seem to dampen her competitive spirit during 1984, as she tied her 200m world record of 21.71sec at Potsdam on 21 July, having earlier that year anchored the GDR to a world record of 3min 15.92sec in the 4 x 400m relay (Ron Casey)

 The 1985 season was a long one for those European athletes competing in the World Cup in Canberra in October and consequently Marita Koch competed sparingly, but with top quality performances. In the 200m she recorded 5 of the 7 fastest times in, including the fastest time of 21.78sec at the East German national championships in Leipzig on 11 August. She only competed in one 400m race prior to the World Cup and that was at East Berlin on 22 September where she won in 48.97sec. In Koch's absence, the 400m event had been dominated during 1985 by Soviet runner Olga Vladykina, who had improved the Soviet Union record to 48.60sec in winning the European Cup. At Canberra, Koch was expected to win the 200m, which she did easily in a time of 21.90sec, but on the strength of Vlaykina's season to date, the 400m was not considered a pushover for Koch.

In the final, Koch produced one of the greatest athletics feats in history, speeding through 200m in 22.4sec and finishing in an incredible 47.60sec. Vladykina also ran a personal best of 48.27sec in finishing second, but it seemed pedestrian compared with Koch's time. Koch also anchored East Germany to victory in the 4 x 400m relay final, the fourth time that she had done so in four successive World Cups. Koch's international career ended on a high note the following year at the European Championships in Stuttgart. In the 400m final on 28 August, Koch won in the year's best time of 48.22sec, beating silver medallist Vladykina by a whopping 1.45sec. Three days later, in the 4 x 400m relay, she ran the anchor leg of the victorious East German team (the photo above shows from L-R: Busch, Emmelmann, Muller & Marita). (Ron Casey)