The

4th World Festival of Youth and Students The 4th World Festival of Youth and Students (WFYS) was held from 2 to 14 August 1953 in Bucharest, capital city of the then Romanian People's Republic. The World Federation of Democratic Youth organized this festival against a background of wha ...

featured an

athletics Athletics may refer to: Sports * Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking ** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport * Athletics (physical culture), competiti ...

competition among its programme of events. The events were contested in

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north of ...

, Romania in August 1953. Mainly contested among

Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the Europe, European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic connotations. The vast majority of the region is covered by Russ ...

an athletes, it served as an alternative to the more Western European-oriented

1953 Summer International University Sports Week The 1953 Summer International University Sports Week were organised by the International University Sports Federation (FISU) and held in Dortmund, West Germany, between 7 and 14 August. Sports * Athletics at the 1953 Summer International Universi ...

held in

Dortmund Dortmund (; Westphalian nds, Düörpm ; la, Tremonia) is the third-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne and Düsseldorf, and the eighth-largest city of Germany, with a population of 588,250 inhabitants as of 2021. It is the la ...

the same year.World Student Games (UIE)
GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 2014-12-09. The event reached new peaks, in particular with men's

long-distance Long distance or Long-distance may refer to: *Long-distance calling *Long-distance operator *Long-distance relationship * Long-distance train *Long-distance anchor pylon, see dead-end tower Footpaths *Long-distance trail *European long-dista ...

battles between multiple Olympic champion

Emil Zátopek Emil Zátopek (; 19 September 1922 – 21 November 2000) was a Czech long-distance runner best known for winning three gold medals at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki. He won gold in the 5,000 metres and 10,000 metres runs, but his final m ...

and future Olympic champion

Vladimir Kuts Volodymyr Petrovych Kuts ( uk, Володимир Петрович Куц, russian: Владимир Петрович Куц, 7 February 1927 – 16 August 1975) was a Soviet long-distance runner. He won the 5000 and 10000 m races at the 1956 O ...

(Zátopek won both contests).

Ardalion Ignatyev Ardalion Vasilyevich Ignatyev (russian: Ардалион Васи́льевич Игна́тьев; November 24, 1930 – October 24, 1998) was a Soviet athlete who mainly competed in the 400 metres. He was born in the village of Novoye To ...

Yevgeniy Bulanchik Yevgeniy Bulanchik (3 April 1922 – 17 November 1995)Biography of Yevhen Bulanchyk
was a

Anatoliy Yulin Anatoliy Yulin ( be, Анатоль Юлін; 9 March 1929 – 29 August 2002) was a Belarusian athlete who competed in the 1952 Summer Olympics and in the 1956 Summer Olympics The 1956 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XV ...

Josef Doležal Josef Doležal (; 12 December 1920 in Příbram – 28 January 1999 in Prague) was a Czechoslovak athlete who competed mainly in the 50 kilometre walk.Ödön Földessy Ödön Földessy (1 July 1929 – 9 June 2020) was a Hungary, Hungarian athlete who mainly competed in the long jump. He was born in Békés. He competed for Hungary in the men's long jump event at the Athletics at the 1952 Summer Olympi ...

Leonid Shcherbakov Leonid Mikhailovich Shcherbakov (russian: Леонид Михайлович Щербаков, born 7 April 1927) is a Russian retired triple jumper who won a silver medal at the 1952 Olympics. He broke the world record in 1953 and won the Europ ...

all went on to claim gold medals at the

1954 European Athletics Championships The 5th European Athletics Championships were held at Stadion Neufeld from 25–29 August 1954 in the Swiss capital Bern. Contemporaneous reports on the event were given in the Glasgow Herald. Medal summary Complete results were publis ...

a year later. The men's

hammer throw The hammer throw is one of the four throwing events in regular track and field competitions, along with the discus throw, shot put and javelin. The "hammer" used in this sport is not like any of the tools also called by that name. It consis ...

saw European champion

Sverre Strandli Sverre Gunnar Strandli (30 November 1925 – 4 March 1985) was a Norway, Norwegian hammer thrower, who won the gold medal at the European Championships in 1950 European Championships in Athletics, 1950 and the silver medal in 1954 European Champ ...

take on and defeat the reigning Olympic champion

József Csermák József Csermák (14 February 1932 – 14 January 2001 in Tapolca) was a Hungarian hammer thrower. He won the gold medal at the 1952 Summer Olympics The 1952 Summer Olympics ( fi, Kesäolympialaiset 1952; sv, Olympiska sommarspelen 195 ...

. The women's events contained similarly high profile athletes.

Aleksandra Chudina Aleksandra Georgievna Chudina (russian: Александра Георгиевна Чудина; 6 November 1923 – 28 October 1990) was a Soviet athlete who excelled in field hockey, volleyball, and various track and field events. Field hockey ...

defended three of her four titles from the previous edition and won a different fourth title in the

javelin throw The javelin throw is a track and field event where the javelin, a spear about in length, is thrown. The javelin thrower gains momentum by running within a predetermined area. Javelin throwing is an event of both the men's decathlon and the ...

(having won the

80 metres hurdles 80 metres hurdles is a distance in hurdling ran by women until 1972 in international competitions. Since the 1972 Summer Olympics, the event has been permanently replaced by the 100 metre hurdles. Masters athletics The distance, with different sp ...

in 1951 instead).

Nina Otkalenko Nina Grigoryevna Otkalenko (née Pletnyova; russian: Нина Григорьевна Откаленко; 23 May 1928 – 13 May 2015) was a Soviet middle-distance runner. She won a European title in the 800 m at the inaugural 1954 European Athlet ...

won the

800 metres The 800 metres, or meters ( US spelling), is a common track running event. It is the shortest commonly run middle-distance running event. The 800 metres is run over two laps of an outdoor (400-metre) track and has been an Olympic event since the ...

– a feat she would repeat at the 1954 European Championships – and

Maria Golubnichaya Maria Vasilyevna Golubnichaya (russian: Мария Васильевна Голубничая) (24 February 1924 – August 2015)Olga Gyarmati Olga Gyarmati (; 5 October 1924 – 27 October 2013) was a Hungarian all-round track and field athlete who competed at three Olympic Games in four different events. Her greatest success was winning the inaugural Olympic Women's Long Jump c ...

returned but was again held off 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 ...

podium by Chudina. Having won the Olympic title since her previous runner-up performance at the tournament,

shot put The shot put is a track and field event involving "putting" (throwing) a heavy spherical ball—the ''shot''—as far as possible. The shot put competition for men has been a part of the modern Olympics since their revival in 1896, and women's ...

ter

Galina Zybina Galina Ivanovna Zybina (russian: Гали́на Ива́новна Зы́бина, born 22 January 1931) is a retired Soviet and Russian athlete and coach. She competed in the shot put at the 1952, 1956, 1960 and 1964 Olympics and finished in fir ...

went on better and won the world student title. Nina Ponomaryova defended her discus throw title, having also become Olympic champion in the meantime.OLYMPIC GAMES MEDALLISTS - ATHLETICS (WOMEN)
GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 2014-12-10. Yevgeniy Bulanchik (110 m hurdles), Leonid Shcherbakov (triple jump), Ferenc Klics (discus) and Aleksandra Chudina (high jump) became the first athletes to win three consecutive titles in a discipline at the World Festival of Youth and Students. The Soviet Union and East Germany won most of the women's medals, while the men's events were dominated by Soviet, Czechoslovak and Hungarian athletes.

Medal summary

Men

Women

Medal table

References

;Results
World Student Games (UIE)
GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 2014-12-09. {{Universiade Athletics

World Festival of Youth and Students The World Festival of Youth and Students is an international event organized by the World Federation of Democratic Youth (WFDY) and the International Union of Students after 1947. History The festival has been held regularly since 1947 as an eve ...

1953 in Czechoslovak sport

Sport in Bucharest

1953 Events January * January 6 – The Asian Socialist Conference opens in Rangoon, Burma. * January 12 – Estonian émigrés found a Estonian government-in-exile, government-in-exile in Oslo. * January 14 ** Marshal Josip Broz Tito i ...

1953 in Romanian sport