The 1st World Championships in Athletics (; ) were run under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations and were held at the Olympic Stadium in Helsinki, Finland between 7 and 14 August 1983. Despite the existence of previously held championship events in both 1976 and 1980, this 1983 championship was marked as the inaugural World Championship.

Summary

The overall medal table was a closely contested affair. East Germany took the most gold medals (10) over the first championships and finished with a total of 22 medals. The United States had the second number of gold medals, with eight, and also had the greatest overall medal haul, having won 24 medals. The Soviet Union won one more medal than the East Germans and had six golds, although almost half of their podium finishers were bronze medalists. Twenty-five nations reached the medal tally at the inaugural competition, with all six continents being represented. During the early 1980s this was the top venue in which Soviet Bloc athletes competed against American athletes due to the American-led boycott of the 1980 Olympics in Moscow and the retaliatory Soviet Bloc boycott of the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles.

Carl Lewis won both the 100 metres and the long jump, and finished the competition by anchoring the 4 × 100 metres relay team to a world record time, along with the 200 metres champion Calvin Smith, and bronze medallists Emmit King and Willie Gault. Jarmila Kratochvílová dominated the 400 and 800 metres events, setting a world record of 47.99 seconds. Mary Decker enjoyed her best competition performance, taking the golds in the women's 1500 and 3000 metres. Other prominent athletes included Marita Koch, who won the 200 m and both relay golds, as well as the 100 m silver medal. Sergey Bubka won the first of his six consecutive World Championship gold medals in the pole vault.

Men's results

Track

1983 | 1987 | 1991 | 1993 | 1995 100 m Carl Lewis 10.07 Calvin Smith 10.21 Emmit King 10.24 200 m Calvin Smith 20.14 Elliott Quow 20.41 Pietro Mennea 20.51 400 m Bert Cameron 45.05 Michael Franks 45.22 Sunder Nix 45.24 800 m Willi Wülbeck 1:43.65 Rob Druppers 1:44.20 Joaquim Cruz 1:44.27 1500 m Steve Cram 3:41.59 Steve Scott 3:41.87 Saïd Aouita 3:42.02 5000 m Eamonn Coghlan 13:28.53 Werner Schildhauer 13:30.20 Martti Vainio 13:30.34 10,000 m Alberto Cova 28:01.04 Werner Schildhauer 28:01.18 Hansjörg Kunze 28:01.26 Marathon Rob de Castella 2:10:03 Kebede Balcha 2:10:27 Waldemar Cierpinski 2:10:37 110 m hurdles Greg Foster 13.42 Arto Bryggare 13.46 Willie Gault 13.48 400 m hurdles Edwin Moses 47.50 Harald Schmid 48.61 Aleksandr Kharlov 49.03 3000 m st. Patriz Ilg 8:15.06 Bogusław Mamiński 8:17.03 Colin Reitz 8:17.75 20 km walk Ernesto Canto 1:20:49 Jozef Pribilinec 1:20:59 Yevgeniy Yevsyukov 1:21:08 50 km walk Ronald Weigel 3:43:08 José Marín 3:46:32 Sergey Yung 3:49:03 4 × 100 m relay Emmit KingWillie GaultCalvin SmithCarl Lewis 37.86(WR) Stefano TilliCarlo SimionatoPierfrancesco PavoniPietro Mennea 38.37(NR) Andrey ProkofyevNikolay SidorovVladimir MuravyovViktor Bryzgin 38.41 4 × 400 m relay Sergey LovachovAleksandr TroshchiloNikolay ChernetskiyViktor Markin 3:00.79 Erwin SkamrahlJörg VaihingerHarald SchmidHartmut Weber Martin Weppler*Edgar Nakladal* 3:01.83 Ainsley BennettGarry CookTodd BennettPhil Brown Kriss Akabusi* 3:03.53 Note: * Indicates athletes who ran in preliminary rounds.

Field 1983 | 1987 | 1991 | 1993 | 1995 High jump 2.32 2.32 2.29 Pole vault 5.70 5.60 5.60 Long jump 8.55 8.29 8.12 Triple jump 17.42 17.18 17.18 Shot put 21.39 21.16 20.98 Discus throw 67.72 67.36 66.08 Hammer throw 82.68 80.94 79.42 Javelin throw 89.48 85.60 85.58 Decathlon 8666 8561 8478

Women's results

Track 1983 | 1987 | 1991 | 1993 | 1995 100 m 10.97(CR) 11.02 11.06 200 m 22.13 22.19 22.37 400 m 47.99(WR) 48.59(PB) 49.19 800 m 1:54.68 1:56.11 1:57.58 1500 m 4:00.90 4:01.19 4:02.25 3000 m 8:34.62 8:35.11 8:35.13 Marathon 2:28:09 2:31:09 2:31:13 100 m hurdles 12.35 12.42 12.62 400 m hurdles 54.14 54.15 54.55 4 × 100 m relay Silke GladischMarita KochIngrid AuerswaldMarlies Göhr 41.76 Joan BaptisteKathy CookBeverley CallenderShirley Thomas 42.71 Leleith HodgesJacqueline PuseyJuliet CuthbertMerlene Ottey 42.73 4 × 400 m relay Kerstin WaltherSabine BuschMarita KochDagmar RübsamUndine Bremer*Ellen Fiedler* 3:19.73 Taťána KocembováMilena MatějkovičováZuzana MoravčíkováJarmila Kratochvílová 3:20.32 Yelena KorbanMarina IvanovaIrina BaskakovaMariya Pinigina 3:21.16 Note: * Indicates athletes who ran in preliminary rounds.

Field 1983 | 1987 | 1991 | 1993 | 1995 High jump 2.01 1.99 1.95 Long jump 7.27 7.15 7.04 Shot put 21.05 20.70 20.56 Discus throw 68.94 67.44 66.44 Javelin throw 70.82 69.14 65.72 Heptathlon 6714 6662 6532

Medal table

See also 1983 in athletics (track and field)

References IAAF

External links

Summary at SVT's open archive