Photo by WikiMedia, CC by 3.0
With increased competition and more advanced technology, world records continue to be broken in track and field athletics – however, some have certainly stood the test of time.
Jarmila Kratochvilova – Women’s 800m – 26/07/83
The longest-standing world record belongs to Jarmila Kratochvilova, whose time of 1:53.28 set in the women’s 800m in Munich has still yet to be beaten in over 38 years.
It is remarkable when you consider how few athletes have got close to breaking her record – only Pamela Jelimo of Kenya and South Africa’s Caster Semenya have set a time within one second.
Kratochvilova was a high achiever in athletics across multiple disciplines – she won gold in the 400m and 800m in the 1983 World Championship in Helsinki and was also an Olympic silver medalist in the 400m three years earlier.
Marita Koch – Women’s 400m – 06/10/85
In the 400m, Kratochvilova is second in the all-time list behind Koch, who set her world record of 47.60 in the Canberra World Cup of 1985.
What made her run all the more remarkable is that she was drawn in lane two – usually higher performance athletes prefer running in the middle lanes.
Yet she stormed out of the blocks and by the time the race was drawing to a conclusion, all but one of the field were so far behind, they were not caught on the original camera shots.
East German Koch won a total of 11 golds across her career, including in the 1980 Olympics.
Yuriy Sedykh – Men’s Hammer – 30/08/86
Set at the European Championships in Stuttgart in 1986, Sedykh beat a world record that had only been in place just over a month when he threw the hammer 86.74m.
His career was one of great longevity – he won gold medals in the Olympics of 1976 and 1980 and also took gold in the 1991 World Athletics Championships.
Only two hammer throw attempts have come within two metres of Sedykh’s world record since.
Natalya Lysovskaya – Women’s Shot Put – 07/06/87
Lysovskaya set her world record of 22.63m in the Brothers Znamensky Memorial in Moscow.
Standing at 6 ft 2 and weighing in excess of 105kg, the then-24-year-old was perfectly built for the shot put and she broke the world record twice on the same day, with the third farthest throw also recorded by her.
She won gold in the 1988 Olympics in Seoul and was also world champion in Rome in 1987.
Galina Chistyakova – Women’s Long Jump – 11/06/88
Galina Chistyakova made history as the first woman to surpass the 7.50-meter mark in the long jump. Representing the Soviet Union, she claimed the bronze medal at the 1988 Olympics, but just months before stepping onto the podium, she shattered the world record.
Though she managed a 7.11-meter jump at the Olympics, she redeemed herself the following year by winning the World Indoor Championship.
In addition to her long jump dominance, Chistyakova briefly held the world record in the triple jump, setting the mark in 1989—though it didn’t stand the test of time like her legendary long jump record.
