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Sabine Braun had won the world title in 1991 and the Olympic bronze
medal in 1992 in the heptathlon. On both occasions her major opposition
was world record holder Jackie Joyner-Kersee (USA). Joyner-Kersee had
beaten Braun by 395 points at the Olympics, and even though Braun had
won their former clash, the American had been well ahead before
withdrawing due to injury. However, the competition was much closer
when the two next met at the 1993 World Championships in Stuttgart on
16-17 August. At Stuttgart, Braun led Joyner-Kersee after two events,
and extended her lead even further in the next event with a shot put (see photo above)
of 14.62m.
Braun relinquished the lead to Joyner-Kersee in the next
event, but then regained it in the sixth event with a javelin throw of
53.44m, nearly 10m longer than Jackie's. With just the 800m remaining,
Braun's tally of 5944 points was 7 points more than Joyner-Kersee's. To
win the gold medal, Braun had to beat Joyner-Kersee in the 800m or lose
to her by no more than half a second. Although Sabine stayed in touch
in the early stages, Joyner-Kersee sprinted clear in the last 300m,
beating Braun by over 3 seconds to win the gold medal by a mere 40
points. Less than two weeks later, in Ingelheim, Braun set a world's
best mark ever of 6214 points for the novelty 45 minute heptathlon
event.
In 1994, Sabine attempted to successfully defend her European
title at Helsinki on 8-9 August. After five events, Braun was trailing
Svetlana Moskalets (Russia) by 42 points, but as she had done at
Stuttgart the previous year, Braun made a decisive move in the javelin,
throwing 48.54m, and then going on to retain her European title with a
total of 6419 points. (Ron Casey)
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