The

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), competi ...

competition at the

1981 Summer Universiade The 1981 Summer Universiade, also known as the XI Summer Universiade, took place in Bucharest, Romania. The events were watched by 200,000 spectators. Sports * * * * * * * * * * Medal table External links Universiada 81-TVR {{Univer ...

was held at the

National Stadium Many countries have a national sport stadium, which typically serves as the primary or exclusive home for one or more of a country's national representative sports teams. The term is most often used in reference to an association football stadiu ...

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 Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

, in July 1981. The programme featured 23 events for men and 16 for women. A total of fourteen Universiade records were broken during the 1981 Games. The

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

was the most successful nation medals-wise as it topped the table with eleven

gold medal A gold medal is a medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture. Since the eighteenth century, gold medals have bee ...

s and 32 in total. The

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, runners-up in the competition, also took eleven gold medals, but had a lesser haul overall with 17 medal performances.

East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

and

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

had the next greatest number of gold medals, with four and three respectively, but it was the host nation Romania which was third place in the total tally, having won two golds but fifteen medals overall. The competition featured a men's

marathon The marathon is a long-distance foot race with a distance of , usually run as a road race, but the distance can be covered on trail routes. The marathon can be completed by running or with a run/walk strategy. There are also wheelchair div ...

race and a 20 kilometres road walk for the first time, expanding the programme outside of the usual

track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping events ...

stadium. The women's

3000 metres The 3000 metres or 3000-metre run is a track running event, also commonly known as the "3K" or "3K run", where 7.5 laps are run around an outdoor 400 m track, or 15 laps around a 200 m indoor track. It is debated whether the 3000m shoul ...

also made its first Games appearance, having been previously held at only the 1975 World University Championships in Athletics competition. The

400 metres hurdles The 400 metres hurdles is a track and field hurdling event. The event has been on the Olympic athletics programme since 1900 for men and since 1984 for women. On a standard outdoor track, 400 metres is the length of the inside lane, once a ...

and

4×400 metres relay Four-wheel drive, also called 4×4 ("four by four") or 4WD, refers to a two-axled vehicle drivetrain capable of providing torque to all of its wheels simultaneously. It may be full-time or on-demand, and is typically linked via a transfer case ...

for women were other new additions to the Universiade athletics contest, while the

women's pentathlon The pentathlon or women's pentathlon is a combined track and field event in which each woman competes in five separate events over one day (formerly two days). The distance or time for each event is converted to points via scoring tables, with ...

was replaced with the more extensive

heptathlon 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 ...

event.

Saïd Aouita Saïd Aouita ( ar, سعيد عويطة; born November 2, 1959) is a former Moroccan track and field athlete. He is the only athlete in history to have won a medal in each of the 800 meters and 5000 meters at the Olympic games. He won the 5000 mete ...

demonstrated his potential with a win in the

1500 metres The 1500 metres or 1,500-metre run (typically pronounced 'fifteen-hundred metres') is the foremost middle distance track event in athletics. The distance has been contested at the Summer Olympics since 1896 and the World Championships in Athletic ...

in a Games record time. The 1980 Olympic gold medallists

Dainis Kūla Dainis Kūla (born 28 April 1959 in Tukums, Latvian SSR) is a Latvian former javelin thrower who represented the Soviet Union at the international level for most of his career. He is most famous for controversially winning the gold medal in men ...

(javelin) and

Maurizio Damilano Maurizio Damilano (born 6 April 1957 in Scarnafigi, Italy) is an Italian former race walker. He won 15 individual medals (22 also with team events), at senior level, at the International athletics competitions. Biography He was the 1980 Olympic ...

(20 km walk) won their respective disciplines. On the women's side, reigning Olympic champions

Tatyana Kolpakova Tatyana Alekseyevna Kolpakova (Abbyasova) (russian: Татьяна Алексеевна Колпакова (Аббясова)) (born October 18, 1959 in village Alamedin, Kyrgyz SSR) is a retired long jumper who represented the USSR. Kolpakov ...

and

Sara Simeoni Sara Simeoni (born 19 April 1953) is an Italian former high jumper, who won a gold medal at the 1980 Summer Olympics and twice set a world record in the women's high jump. Biography Sara Simeoni was born in Rivoli Veronese, in the province of V ...

won 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 ...

and

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 ...

events. Konstantin Volkov, the 1980 Olympic silver medallist, was another high-profile name and he set a record to win the men's

pole vault Pole vaulting, also known as pole jumping, is a track and field event in which an athlete uses a long and flexible pole, usually made from fiberglass or carbon fiber, as an aid to jump over a bar. Pole jumping competitions were known to the Myc ...

. Romanian

Doina Melinte Doina Ofelia Melinte (; née Beșliu on 27 December 1956) is a retired Romanians, Romanian middle-distance runner. She competed at four Olympics (1980–92), and won a gold medal in the 800 metres and a silver medal in the 1500 metres in 1984. S ...

won the women's

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 ...

gold and 1500 m silver and later went on to win medals of those colours at the

1984 Summer Olympics The 1984 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXIII Olympiad and also known as Los Angeles 1984) were an international multi-sport event held from July 28 to August 12, 1984, in Los Angeles, California, United States. It marked the secon ...

. An unusual mistake occurred in the men's

10,000 metres The 10,000 metres or the 10,000-metre run is a common long-distance track running event. The event is part of the athletics programme at the Olympic Games and the World Athletics Championships, and is common at championship level events. The race ...

competition, as the athletes ran a further lap of the circuit than intended – resulting in a total distance of 10,400 m.

Medal summary

Men's events

* † = The 10,000 m race was held for one lap too many, resulting in a final distance of 10,400 m.

Women's events

Medal table

Bundesarchiv Bild 183-1988-0625-021, Petra Felke

References

World Student Games (Universiade – Men)
GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 2010-08-25.

GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 2010-08-25. {{DEFAULTSORT:Athletics At The 1981 Summer Universiade 1981 Summer Universiade

1981 Events January * January 1 ** Greece enters the European Economic Community, predecessor of the European Union. ** Palau becomes a self-governing territory. * January 10 – Salvadoran Civil War: The FMLN launches its first major offensiv ...

1981 in athletics (track and field)