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Following their rivalry in 1983, when Gohr had won the 100m title at the
World Championships in Helsinki, Marlies Gohr and Evelyn Ashford (USA)
continued their dominance of the 100m in 1984, recording the season's
fastest 10 times between them. Unfortunately, Gohr was unable to
compete at that year's Olympic Games in Los Angeles, due to the boycott
by the eastern bloc countries, and in her absence, Ashford won the gold
medal. Ashford took 1985 off on maternity leave, and in her absence
Gohr was clearly the top 100m sprinter in the world, winning 11 of her
13 races. Her meets in 1985 included the East Germany v United Kingdom
international at Birmingham in July (see photo above), but the
biggest event of the year was the World Cup in Canberra, where Gohr
easily won the 100m gold medal in 11.10sec. In the 4 x 100m relay final
on 6 October, Marlies anchored the East German team to victory in a new
world record of 41.37sec.
In 1986, Gohr's main focus was the European
Championships in Stuttgart where she was the reigning 100m champion. In
the 100m final, on 27 August, Marlies easily won the gold medal in her
season's fastest time of 10.91sec, to become the first woman to win
three European 100m titles. She won an additional gold medal at
Stuttgart in the 4 x 100m relay, anchoring the East German team to an
easy win in 41.84sec. Gohr's last two appearances in major
international championships before she retired were at the 1987 World
Championships in Rome, where she was eliminated in the semi-finals of
the 100m, but won a silver medal in the 4 x 100m relay, and at the 1988
Olympic Games in Seoul, where she was again eliminated in the 100m
semi-finals, but won a silver in the relay. (Ron Casey)
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