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Sabine Braun's career in the heptathlon was notable for a longevity and
consistency rarely found in such a physically demanding discipline.
Braun's first major competition was the European Junior Championships in
August 1983, where she finished second with a score of 6254 points, and
which also placed her second on the all-time world junior list. The
following year, she competed in her first Olympic Games at Los Angeles,
where she finished in 6th place. The long jump was one of Braun's
strongest events, and in 1985, she won the West German long jump title
with a personal best of 6.73m, and then went on to finish third at the
European Cup, and 5th at the World Cup in Canberra in that event.
Although Braun compiled a formidable 6418 points in May 1986 at the
annual multi-events festival in Gotzis Austria, she missed the
opportunity of competing at the European Championships later that year
due to injury. Sabine's 1987 season was also curtailed by injury, and
although she came back strongly in 1988, compiling 6432 points at Lage
in August, she performed well below par at the Seoul Olympic Games the
following month, finishing a disappointing 14th. Braun set a new
personal best score of 6575 points when she finished second in the World
University Games at Duisburg in August 1989, and then won the West
German heptathlon title with 6491 points less than two weeks later.
In
1990, Braun improved her personal best to 6604 points when she won at
Gotzis in June, and then on 30-31 August, she won the gold medal at the
European Championships in Split, finishing with an 800m run (see photo above) in 2min 15.20sec to set another new personal best heptathlon score of 6688 points. (Ron Casey)
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