Jarmila Kratochvilova 800m world record

Описание: 26 July 1983, Munich, Olympiapark meeting, Olympic Stadium. Jarmila Kratochvílová negative splitted (56.82 + 56.46) an unplanned 800m race and set a surprising World Record in 1:53.28 which still stands to date (2019) and is the longest held world record ever. This fear was achieved in an odd set of circumstances.

Six days after going down from her training camp in Font-Romeu, Jarmila Kratochvílová proved her beautiful form in breaking her 400m Czech record with 48.45 in Prague on 23 July, getting closer to the world record held by Marita Koch (GDR) in 48.16. A meeting on 27 July in Munich would be the perfect place to test her 200m speed and try to lower her 21.97 NR 2 weeks before the world championships. However, as she unpacked her luggage’s in Prague, she wrecked her back left side and got muscle cramps on the leg.

In order to favor her leg and not aggravate the injury before the world champs, she asked Munich meet’s organiser to do a 800m instead, the pace being something between 25% slower than a 200m. Inexperienced at 800m, this was her first international race at the 2-laps distance for the 32 years old, discounting early raves during her youth in the 1970’s. She ran 2 domestic races, 1:56.59 in 1982 and 1:58.33 indoors in 1983. In Munich she got a rid of the pacemaker and passed the bell in 56.82 (reports of the race gave an inaccurate 56.1 hand time while photo-cells recorded her in 56.82 as shown in this video). Unchallenged, Kratochvilova increased the pace and covered each of the 100m sections of the last lap faster and faster 14.6, 14.1, 14.0... With 100m to go she saw the stadium’s clock and realized that she was on pace to break the world record of 1:53.43 held by Nadezhda Olizarenko (URS) since 1980 Olympics. The Czech sprinted the last 100m in 13.8 and crossed the line in 1:53.28. This is the only world record in the current list that was set before the IAAF made antidoping controls mandatory for ratification (decision voted by the IAAF Council in Manila, 16-18 December 1983).

The best times at 800m are not achieved in negative split. Olizarenko herself did 56.41 + 57.02. Who knows what Kratochvilova could have achieved with a proper pace that year? She never found such a race. Her performance in Munich and the news that great rival Marita Koch (GDR) would focus on short sprints and not run the 400m at world champs made Kratochvilova opt for a rare 400m-800m in Helsinki. There, she passed the half way in a slow 57.78 and ran the second half in 57.0 to easily win the world title in 1:54.68. The next day she broke Marita Koch’s 400m world record in 47.99 to secure her double.

After the championships, Kratochvilova won the European Cup in 1:58.79 in a slow tactical race of 60.8 + 58.0. Then she planned a fast 800m race. Paced by 400m world silver medallist Tatana Kocembova, she clocked a suicidal 53.5 for the first lap and finished agonizing in 1:55.04, completing the 2nd second lap in 61.5.

With the 1984 Olympic boycott, Jarmila Kratochvilova would never find her 1983 shape again. In an optimally paced 800m with a proper preparation, she must have been able to run 1:52. Which puts her level of performance even more out of reach for the rest of woman kind.