- Who
- Jarmila Kratochvílová
- What
- 1/53.28 minute(s):second(s)
- Where
- Germany (Munich)
- When
On 26 July 1983, Jarmila Kratochvílová (Czechoslovakia) ran a time of 1 minute 53.28 seconds for the 800 m at the Olympic Stadium in Munich, Germany. It is the longest-standing individual record in athletics. As of April 2017, only one athlete – Pamela Jelimo (Kenya) – has come within a second of Kratochvílová’s time since 1983.
Born on 26 January 1951, Kratochvílová set the record aged 32 years 181 days.
Both speed and speed-endurance are required to run the 800 m. The race is linked to the half-mile (880 yards or 804.67 m) first run in Britain by professionals around 1830. For many years, it was usual to run very fast opening laps. However, in 1932 Tom Hampson (GBR) became the first man to break 1:50 with 1:49.7 by running even paced laps (54.8 + 54.9). Germany's Rudolf Harbig broke this record in 1939 with 1:46.6. His success has been put down to the "interval training" devised by his coach Waldemar Gerschler. It involved increasing specific endurance through fast training repetitions with short recoveries: i.e. 50 x 100 m, 20 x 150 m. In 1959 the IAAF introduced running the first 300 meters of this event in lanes to avoid the frequent jostling. Rules currently stipulate that, in certain major competitions, just the first 100 meters will be run in lanes.
