article by Nicola Pucci
After the thrilling challenge at the 1976 Montreal Olympics, which was resolved in favour of the East German Rosemarie Ackermann, the rivalry between the Teutonic and Sara Simeoni continued in the four-year period leading up to the 1980 Moscow Games.both in terms of medals and measures at the top of the world rankings.
1977, the year of the first edition of the World Cupheld in Dusseldorf, sees an Ackermann in “great dusting” given that in less than two months – from July 3 to August 26 – she first equalled her world record of 1.96 metres, then improved it twice to 1.97 metres, and then, on August 26 in Berlin, became the first athlete to clear the bar set at 2 metres!
It is therefore not surprising that in Dusseldorf, at the beginning of September, Ackermann won the race with an excellent 1.98 meters in which Simeoni (as representative of Europe) placed second with 1.92 metres.
The year of the “collected” for Sara it is 1978, which includes the edition of the European Championships in Pragueto which Simeoni appears as the favourite having, on August 4th in Brescia, taken the world record away from the East German by exceeding the height of 2.01 meters.
The Prague Race It will remain in the annals as one of the most exciting in the history of athleticswith a thrilling duel between the two “friends/rivals” that sees the Ackermann climb up to 1.99 meters forcing Sara to match her world championship at 2.01 meters in order to boast the gold medalin a competition where the great disappointment of Montreal reappears, the West German Ulrike Meyfarth, gold medalist at a very young age in Munich 1972, who placed fifth with 1.91 metres.
With Ackermann clearly in decline, the pre-Olympic year saw Simeoni win gold at the Mediterranean Games but only obtain bronze at the 1979 Mexico City Universiade (where Meyfarth returns to the podium as second behind the Hungarian Andrea Matay), while at the World Cup in Montreal, again in 1979, she was defeated by Canadian Debbie Brill who with 1.96 meters established the national record, coming second with 1.94 meters in a race where Ackermann had to settle for a modest fourth place for her with 1.87 meters.
There is no doubt that the absences of a clearly recovering Meyfarth (with a “season best” of 1.94 meters in 1980) and of Brill herself – which in the Olympic year rises to 1.97 meters – they partially reduce the value of the Olympic competitionbut it should also not be forgotten how Simeoni arrived at the Games having won his third gold at the European Indoor Championships at the beginning of March 1980 with 1.95 metres ahead of Matay (winner the year before in Vienna) and the Polish Urszula Kielan, both stopped at 1.93 metres.
In the qualifications on July 25, the measure of 1.88 meters was easily exceeded by all the contenders for successstarting with Ackermann and continuing with Matay and Kielan, who therefore appear to be the most credible opponents for the Italian in the final scheduled for the following day.
Simeoni, as a great competitor that she is, knows that this is her great opportunity to crown a career that has no equal in our women’s athletics scene and, after having crossed the bar at 1.80 meters and 1.85 meters, strangely “raisin” the measure of 1.88 meters which, on the other hand, was surpassed at the first attempt by 7 athletes and by the young Russian Tamara Bykova (who we will hear about later) at the second attempt, while one of the favorites, the Hungarian Matay, sensationally exited the scene.
With 9 athletes still in the race, the subsequent altitude of 1.91 meters was exceeded in the first test by Simeoni, the Polish Kielan and Ackermann (all three still free from errors, even if the German attempted all five measures against only three jumps from Sara and Kielan, a clear sign of a non-optimal form), while it proved fatal to Bykova and the Romanian Popa, who abandon the competition.
We then rise to 1.94 meters and here the podium is awarded as both Ackermann, confirming an unsatisfactory condition, and the Russian Sysoeva, the other German Reichstein and the Australian Christine Stanton are eliminated, thus remaining to play for the medals, in addition to Simeoni and Kielan – who continue their path free from penalties -, also the surprising German Jutta Kirst who, after having risked elimination at 1.91 metres, cleared the bar at the second attempt.
As is logical to intuit, Kirst has already done too much and in fact her three attempts at 1.97 metres are rather unrealistic, a measure which, moreover, is also indigestible for Kielan while Sara, surpassing it at the second attempt, obtains the deserved Olympic consecration after the silver in Montreal and the sports “revenge” on Ackermann.
It would remain from “close the accounts” with the other West German Meyfarthbut we will have the opportunity to talk about this again…
2024-06-29 18:06:00
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