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Tatyana Ledovskaya is most remembered for having fought out two close
finishes in the 400m hurdles in international championships. In one
instance she was victorious, and on the other occasion she had to settle
for second place. Ledovskaya made a huge improvement during 1988,
reducing her pre-season best of 56.92sec by nearly four seconds and very
nearly winning the gold medal at the Olympic Games in Seoul. Prior to
Seoul, in early July, Tatyana won the Soviet national title in 55.10sec,
and on 27 August, at Vinius, she achieved her pre-Olympics personal
best of 54.48sec.
In Seoul, Ledovskaya gave no inkling of the fireworks
to come when she finished a comfortable second in her heat on 25
September. She moved up a gear in the first semi-final the following
day, taking the field out at a terrific pace, before being overtaken and
beaten by the narrowest of margins (0.01sec) by Debbie Flintoff-King
(Australia). Tatyana's time of 54.01sec moved her to 7th place on the
all-time world list. In the final held two days later, Ledovskaya made
an even faster start, leading over the fifth hurdle in a lightning fast
23.06sec. Coming off the last hurdle, Ledovskaya held a virtually
unbeatable lead of 0.15sec over Ellen Fiedler (East Germany), and
0.24sec over Flintoff-King. However, the Australian produced an
incredible burst in the remaining 40 metres, to again nip the luckless
Ledovskaya at the tape by 0.01sec. Tatyana's silver medal-winning time
of 53.18sec was the third fastest time ever recorded, behind
Flintoff-King's and the world record of 52.94sec.
Ledovskaya was much
more fortunate in the 4 x 400m relay final, where, following her 50.1sec
opening leg for the Soviet Union, her three compatriots combined to
successfully hold the USA team at bay and win the gold medal in a new
world record time of 3min 15.18sec. (Ron Casey)
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