Pentathlon, Women

Nadezhda Tkachenko had finished fifth in the pentathlon in 1976 at Montréal. In 1978 she seemed to have won the European Championships in the pentathlon but was disqualified for a positive doping test for anabolic steroids. In Moskva she took the lead after the shot put, with a nice effort of 16.84 (55-3), and was never headed. The Soviet women swept the medals in the event, with all three athletes bettering the previous world record. Actually, all three set world records, with bronze medalist Olga Kuragina crossing the line in the 800 first with 2:03.6, followed by silver medalist Olga Rukavishnikova in 2:04.8, and Tkachenko coming in 4/10ths of a second later for the gold medal. Tkachenko’s world record of 5,083 was the first mark ever over 5,000 points.