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After six years of competing at the highest level in international
athletics, Heike Drechsler took a break from competition in 1989, during
which time she gave birth to her son, Toni, on 1 November. She quickly
recaptured her previous top form following her return to competition in
1990. In her favoured event, the long jump, she won 13 of the 14
competitions she entered, and jumped over seven metres in 9 of them. As
she had often done in previous years, she sometimes set herself a heavy
program. On two consecutive days, she won the ISTAF meet in Berlin
with a leap of 7.01m on 17 August, and the next day won the East German
national championships at Dresden recording a best jump of 7.12m. In
the sprint events, she concentrated on the 200m, although she did record
a creditable 11.14sec over 100m when winning at Koblenz on 4 September.
At the European Championships at Split in August, Drechsler
successfully defended the long jump title that she had won in 1986. In
the absence of world record holder Galina Chistyakova (Soviet Union) due
to injury, Drechsler won easily, and four of her jumps, including a
best of 7.30m, were further than the best mark of the sliver medallist,
Marieta Ilcu (Romania). Drechsler was less successful in her attempt to
defend her European 200 metres title two days later. In that race she
finished second (see photo above) to fellow countrywoman Katrina
Krabbe (21.95sec) in a time of 22.19sec, with Soviet runner Galina
Malchugina in third place. This was the last time that Drechsler
represented East Germany in international competition. Following the
fall of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of Germany, she
thenceforth wore the colours of the unified Germany. (Ron Casey)
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