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By the end of 1983, Kathy Cook had established herself as one of the
world's premier sprinters, having won a number of individual medals at
major international championships, and also having never failed to win a
medal in the sprint relay at all major championships in which she had
competed since 1978. Cook had never seriously contested the 400m event
up to that time, although in one of her rare forays over the distance in
1982, she had set a new UK and Commonwealth record. Cook started to
train more exclusively for the event in 1984, although even then, she
chose to only compete in the 100m and 200m at the WAAA Championships,
where she won both titles. At the Olympic Games in Los Angeles, Cook
qualified for the 400m final when she finished second in her semi-final
in a time of 51.49sec.
In the final held on 6 August, Kathy went out
fast and led the field through the first 200m in 23.4sec, but USA
teammates Valerie Brisco-Hooks and Chandra Cheeseborough made up ground
and passed Kathy on the turn, leaving her in third place as they
straightened for home. Although Cook was unable to rein in the two
Americans, she finished strongly to easily win the bronze medal.
Kathy's time of 49.42sec was over a second inside her previous personal
best and set new UK and Commonwealth records. Two days later, Cook
competed in the preliminary rounds of the 200m (see photo above),
from which she eventually qualified for the final the following day.
In the final, Kathy closed with a phenomenal burst, just failing to
catch bronze medallist Merlene Ottey (Jamaica) by a mere one hundredth
of a second. Kathy maintained her record of always winning a relay
medal when the Great Britain 4 x 100m relay team captured the bronze
medal. (Ron Casey)
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