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Sabine Braun had captured her first major international title in 1990,
when she won the heptathlon at the European Championships in Split. In
1991 she set her sights on the World Championships in Tokyo, but there
she would have to contend with world record holder Jackie Joyner-Kersee
(USA). Prior to Tokyo, Sabine won the heptathlon at the annual
multi-event festival at Gotzis with a score of 6584 points. In the
heptathlon at Tokyo Joyner-Kersee led Braun in second place by 165
points after three events. But in the 200m, Joyner-Kersee, aggravated
an injury suffered in the individual long jump event the previous day,
and had to withdraw from the competition.
This left Braun in second
place at the end of the first day only 2 points behind Zhu Yuqing
(China). Sabine put the final result beyond doubt in the first event
the following day, with a superb wind-assisted long jump of 6.67m which
put her well over 100 points ahead of the rest of the field. Braun went
on to win the gold medal with a score of 6672 points. In 1992, Sabine
won again at Gotzis with a new personal best of 6985 points, and then
went to the Olympic Games in Barcelona to do battle with Joyner-Kersee
again. At Barcelona, on 1-2 August, Braun took the competition right up
to Joyner-Kersee, and was only 15 points behind her after three events.
However, disaster struck Sabine in one of her best events, the long
jump, where she opened with only 6.02m, and then fouled her other two
attempts. From battling for the gold after three events, Braun had
slipped to fourth after five events. Sabine bounced straight back in
the next event, the javelin throw (see photo above) where she threw a huge 51.12m to assure herself of a medal. In the end, she finished third, with a total of 6649 points. (Ron Casey)
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