Anne-Marie Pira (born 6 February 1955) is a retired

Belgia Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to the ...

heptathlete A heptathlon is a track and field combined events contest made up of seven events. The name derives from the Greek επτά (hepta, meaning "seven") and ἄθλος (áthlos, or ἄθλον, áthlon, meaning "competition"). A competitor in a hept ...

who excelled in the hurdles and jumping events. She was born in

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

. Pira became Belgian heptathlon champion in 1976, 1977 and 1979. She also won the

100 metres hurdles The 100 metres hurdles, or 100-meter hurdles, is a track and field event run mainly by women (the male counterpart is the 110 metres hurdles). For the race, ten Hurdling, hurdles of a height of are placed along a straight course of . The first h ...

in 1975, 1976, 1977, 1979 and 1980; the

high jump The high jump is a track and field event in which competitors must jump unaided over a horizontal bar placed at measured heights without dislodging it. In its modern, most-practiced format, a bar is placed between two standards with a crash mat f ...

in 1976, 1977 and 1978; and the

long jump The long jump is a track and field event in which athletes combine speed, strength and agility in an attempt to leap as far as possible from a takeoff point. Along with the triple jump, the two events that measure jumping for distance as a gr ...

in 1980. In the high jump she finished 17th at the 1976 Olympic Games and competed at the 1978 European Championships without reaching the final. At the 1980 European Indoor Championships she finished eleventh in the

and competed in the

60 metres hurdles 60 metres hurdles is a distance in hurdling which is generally run in indoor competitions. It is equivalent with the first 5 hurdles of a standard outdoor hurdle race. The current women's and men's world records are 7.68 seconds ( Susanna K ...

. Her personal best high jump was 1.92 metres, achieved in 1977. She became Belgian Sportswoman of the Year in 1976 and 1977.

References

1955 births Living people Sportspeople from Brussels Belgian heptathletes Belgian female long jumpers Belgian female high jumpers Belgian female hurdlers Athletes (track and field) at the 1976 Summer Olympics Olympic athletes for Belgium 20th-century Belgian women 21st-century Belgian women {{Belgium-athletics-bio-stub