100 / 80 metres Hurdles (100 m), Women

By now the East Germans and Eastern Europeans dominated this event. Six of them would make the final in Montréal, accompanied by Italian Ileana Ongar, and Israeli Esther Shakhamarov-Rot. Esther Shakhamarov was probably stronger in 1972 but withdrew from the event following the murder of the 11 Israeli athletes and coaches, among whom was her coach, Amitzur Shapira. A major factor in this event was the disqualification of Lyubov Kononova in the second semi-final which caused the race to be re-run on the morning of the final. Defending champion and world record holder Annelie Ehrhardt qualified for the final first time round but could only finish fifth in the rerun which was won by Tatyana Anisimova. Seventy five minutes later Ansimova was back on track for the final and only missed out on gold to Johanna Schaller by a hundredth of a second. It is interesting to speculate what the result would have been if Anisimova did not have that extra race in her legs. The final was very close with the first four runners finishing within 0.05 seconds.