Having won the 100m title at the 1978 European Championships, the next
goal for world-record holder Marlies Gohr was to attempt to repeat that
feat at the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow. Gohr seemed untouchable
during the early part of the 1980 season, and in a series of Olympic
tests staged by the East German federation, she produced three top
performances over 100m during the month of May. On 10 May, she won in
10.98sec at Potsdam, followed by an 11.00sec victory at Jena on 17 May,
and at Dresden on 24 May, she recorded the year's fastest time of
10.93sec, which was second only to her world record of 10.88sec on the
all-time world list. Marlies also honed her sprinting skills prior to
the Olympics in the 4 x 100m relay, anchoring a national squad which
tied the world record of 42.09sec at Berlin on 9 July; set a new world
record of 41.85sec at Potsdam on 13 July; and broke 42seconds again on
17 July with a 41.94sec clocking.
In the final of the 100m at Moscow,
on 26 July, Gohr's main opposition was Lyudmila Kondratyeva (Soviet
Union) who had narrowly beaten Gohr in the 200m at the European
Championships two years earlier. Gohr got a relatively poor start in
the final, but by 60m she had drawn level with Kondratyeva and the two
raced neck and neck towards the tape. Gohr managed to take a slight
lead with 15m remaining, but Kondratyeva (see photo above in lane 5)
made a final lunge near the finish to just edge out Gohr (lane 8) for
the gold medal. Six days later, the same East German team that had set
the three fast times in July lined up for the 4 x 100 m relay final.
Despite some atrocious baton passing, Gohr anchored the team home to win
the gold medal in another world record of 41.60sec. (Ron Casey)  Lyudmila
|