Athletics at the 1964 Summer Olympics – Women's 80 metres hurdles explained

Event:	Women's 80 metres hurdles
Games:	1964 Summer
Venue:	Olympic Stadium
Dates:	18–19 October
Competitors:	31
Nations:	20
Win Value:	10.5
Longnames:	yes
Gold:	Karin Balzer
Goldnoc:	EUA
Silver:	Teresa Ciepły
Silvernoc:	POL
Bronze:	Pam Kilborn
Bronzenoc:	AUS
Prev:	1960
Next:	1968

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.^[1] 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

Place	Athlete	Nation	Time
1			10.7 seconds
2			10.9 seconds
3			11.3 seconds
4			11.5 seconds
5			11.5 seconds
—			Disqualified
—			Did not start

Heat 2

Place	Athlete	Nation	Time
1			10.7 seconds
2			10.8 seconds
3			10.8 seconds
4			10.9 seconds
5			11.0 seconds
6			11.0 seconds
7			11.1 seconds
8			11.2 seconds

Heat 3

There was a strong wind behind the runners; the official report does not credit Piątkowska with equalling the Olympic record of 10.6 seconds.

Place	Athlete	Nation	Time
1			10.6 seconds
2			10.7 seconds
3			10.9 seconds
4			10.9 seconds
5			11.8 seconds
6			12.1 seconds
—			Did not start
—			Did not start

Heat 4

Place	Athlete	Nation	Time
1			10.6 seconds
2			10.7 seconds
3			10.7 seconds
4			10.8 seconds
5			11.1 seconds
6			11.2 seconds
7			12.9 seconds
—			Did not start

Semifinals

The top four runners in each semifinal advanced to the final.

Semifinal 1

Place	Athlete	Nation	Time
1	Pam Kilborn		10.6 seconds =OR
2	Teresa Ciepły		10.7 seconds
3	Irina Press		10.8 seconds
4	Rosie Bonds		10.8 seconds
5	Avis Mcintosh		10.9 seconds
6	Tatyana Talysheva		10.9 seconds
7	Gundula Diel		11.0 seconds
8	Snejana Kerkova		11.4 seconds

Semifinal 2

Place	Athlete	Nation	Time
1	Karin Balzer		10.6 seconds =OR
2	Yoda Ikuko		10.7 seconds
3	Draga Stamejčič		10.7 seconds
4	Maria Piątkowska		10.7 seconds
5	Pat Pryce		10.7 seconds
6	Galina Bystrova		10.8 seconds
7	Leahseneth O'Neal		10.9 seconds
8	Rose Hart		11.1 seconds

Final

Balzer, Ciepły, and Kilborn are not credited by the official report with tying the world record of 10.5 seconds (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.

Place	Athlete	Nation	Time
			10.5 seconds
			10.5 seconds
			10.6 seconds
4			10.6 seconds
5			10.7 seconds
6			10.7 seconds
7			10.8 seconds
8			10.8 seconds

Notes and References

Web site: Athletics at the 1964 Tokyo Summer Games: Women's 80 metres Hurdles . https://web.archive.org/web/20200417175203/https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/summer/1964/ATH/womens-80-metres-hurdles.html . dead . 17 April 2020 . 18 September 2017 . sports-reference.com.