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After her second-place finish in the 400m hurdles behind Australia's
Debbie Flintoff-King at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, it was natural
to assume that Tatyana Ledovskaya would dominate the hurdling scene in
Europe during the following season. However, although she won her
national title at Gorkiy in July, with a 54.85sec clocking, she only
finished third in the European Cup at Gateshead on 5 August, behind
Petra Krug (East Germany) and Sally Gunnell (Great Britain). Ledovskaya
re-established the status quo in the World Cup at Barcelona on 8
September, when she finished second behind Sandra Farmer-Patrick (USA),
with Gunnell and Krug filling the following two places. Tatyana's time
of 54.68sec was her fastest clocking during 1989.
She continued this
form into the following year, winning her third consecutive national
title at Kiev on 7 July in 54.78sec. At the European Championships that
year in Split (see photo above), Ledovskaya was simply in a
class apart from her rivals. On 29 August, she set the fastest time in
the heats of 55.02sec, and then, the following day, she produced the
fastest time in the semi-finals, when she won the first of the two heats
in 54.73sec. In the final held the following day, Ledovskaya blasted
off to her usual fast start, leading throughout to win easily in
53.62sec, the fastest time recorded during 1990. Ledovskaya's winning
margin of 0.74sec over second-placed Anita Protti (Switzerland) was the
largest ever at the European Championships.
In the 4 x 400m relay
final, Ledovskaya, running the last leg for the Soviet Union, led
Germany's Grit Breuer, the individual 400m winner, until the last bend,
at which time the German sprinted away to win the gold medal, while
Ledovskaya brought the Soviet team home for the silver. (Ron Casey)
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