1983 World Championships in Athletics – Women's 400 metres

Events at the 1983 World Championships
Track events
100 m		men		women
200 m		men		women
400 m		men		women
800 m		men		women
1500 m		men		women
3000 m				women
5000 m		men
10,000 m		men
100 m hurdles				women
110 m hurdles		men
400 m hurdles		men		women
3000 m steeplechase		men
4×100 m relay		men		women
4×400 m relay		men		women
Road events
Marathon		men		women
20 km walk		men
50 km walk		men
Field events
Long jump		men		women
Triple jump		men
High jump		men		women
Pole vault		men
Shot put		men		women
Discus throw		men		women
Javelin throw		men		women
Hammer throw		men
Combined events
Heptathlon				women
Decathlon		men
This box:

These are the official results of the Women's 400 metres event at the 1983 IAAF World Championships in Helsinki, Finland. There were a total number of 35 participating athletes, with five qualifying heats and the final held on Wednesday 10 August 1983.

in lane 3 spent much of the race chasing Mariya Kulchunova-Pinigina to her outside, while Taťána Kocembová quickly made up the stagger on Rosalyn Bryant between the two Czech teammates. Kratochvílová finally made up the stagger on Pinigina in the middle of the final turn and came onto the home stretch barely two metres up on the Soviet and a metre up on her teammate. She widened that to four metres by the finish and Kocembová opened up a similar gap on Pinigina.

Each of the top four competitors in this race set their lifetime best, Kratochvílová only being beaten once with 1985's still standing world record 47.60 by Marita Koch. In addition to Kratochvílová remaining the #2 performer in history, Kocembová is #5, Pinigina is #15. Almost forgotten is #56 Gaby Bußmann, still under 50 seconds.

Existing records at the start of the event.

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