The women's 80 metres hurdles was the only women's hurdle race in the Athletics at the 1964 Summer Olympics program in Tokyo. It was held on 18 October and 19 October 1964. 31 athletes from 20 nations entered, with 4 not starting the first round. The first round was held on 18 October, with the semifinals and final on 19 October. The 1965 film Tokyo Olympiad by Kon Ichikawa shows amazingly great detail of the preliminaries, preparation, final and medal ceremony surrounding this event. The slow motion study of the final shows Yoda Ikuko getting a fast start. Joining Ikuko in the lead is Teresa Ciepły. Rosie Bonds crashed the second hurdle and is awkward the rest of the race. By the third hurdle Pam Kilborn has overtaken Ikuko and Ciepły for the lead. Karin Balzer and Irina Press were close behind. Over the course of the final five hurdles, Balzer and Press edged closer as Ikuko lost a little ground. Ciepły, Kilborn and Balzer landing at virtually the same moment and Press inches behind. On the run in, Balzer was able to gain just enough ground to take the gold over a straining Ciepły.
Results
First round
The top four runners in each of the 4 heats advanced.
Heat 1 Wind: +0.9 m/s Place Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (automatic) 1 Karin Balzer 10.7 10.71 2 Galina Bystrova 10.9 10.96 3 Rose Hart 11.3 11.34 4 Snejana Kerkova 11.5 11.50 5 Lorraine Dunn 11.5 11.53 — Amy Snider Disqualified – Amelia Hinten Did not start –
Heat 2 Wind: +2.6 m/s Place Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (automatic) 1 Irina Press 10.7 10.77 2 Pat Pryce 10.8 10.82 3 Avis Mcintosh 10.8 10.84 4 Gundula Diel 10.9 10.94 5 Cherrie Sherrard 11.0 11.00 6 Marlene Canguio 11.0 11.09 7 Chi Cheng 11.1 11.18 8 Sirkka Norrlund 11.2 11.23
Heat 3 Wind: +6.5 m/s There was a strong wind behind the runners; the official report does not credit Piątkowska with equalling the Olympic record of 10.6.
Place Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (automatic) 1 Maria Piątkowska 10.6 10.67 2 Pam Kilborn 10.7 10.79 3 Tatyana Talysheva 10.9 10.92 4 Lacey O'Neal 10.9 10.93 5 Carmen Smith 11.8 – 6 Yeh Chu Mei 12.1 – — Zenta Kopp Did not start – Mary Rand Did not start –
Heat 4
Wind: +4.2 m/s Place Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (automatic) 1 Rosie Bonds 10.6 10.64 2 Yoda Ikuko 10.7 10.71 3 Teresa Ciepły 10.7 10.73 4 Draga Stamejčič 10.8 10.84 5 Jenny Wingerson 11.1 11.16 6 Inge Aigner 11.2 11.27 7 Mary Musani 12.9 – — Denise Guenard Did not start –
Semifinals
The top four runners in each semifinal advanced to the final.
Semifinal 1 Wind: +0.2 m/s Place Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (automatic) 1 Pam Kilborn 10.6 =OR 10.69 2 Teresa Ciepły 10.7 10.77 3 Irina Press 10.8 10.85 4 Rosie Bonds 10.8 10.87 5 Avis Mcintosh 10.9 10.90 6 Tatyana Talysheva 10.9 10.98 7 Gundula Diel 11.0 11.05 8 Snejana Kerkova 11.4 11.41
Semifinal 2 Wind: +1.7 m/s Place Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (automatic) 1 Karin Balzer 10.6 =OR 10.65 2 Yoda Ikuko 10.7 10.72 3 Draga Stamejčič 10.7 10.73 4 Maria Piątkowska 10.7 10.75 5 Pat Pryce 10.7 10.75 6 Galina Bystrova 10.8 10.89 7 Leahseneth O'Neal 10.9 10.99 8 Rose Hart 11.1 11.16
Final
Balzer, Ciepły, and Kilborn are not credited by the official report with tying the world record of 10.5 (and breaking the 10.6 second Olympic record) due to the wind advantage. They finished in one of the closest endings to an Olympic final ever, with Balzer defeating Ciepły by about one-hundredth of a second and Kilborn by two one-hundredths.
Wind: +2.3 m/s Place Athlete Nation Time (hand) Time (automatic) Karin Balzer 10.5 10.54 Teresa Ciepły 10.5 10.55 Pam Kilborn 10.6 10.56 4 Irina Press 10.6 10.62 5 Ikuko Yoda 10.7 10.72 6 Maria Piątkowska 10.7 10.76 7 Draga Stamejčič 10.8 10.86 8 Rosie Bonds 10.8 10.88
References