Ellen Tittel (later Wellmann, later Wessinghage, born 28 June 1948) is a retired West German middle-distance runner who specialized in the 1500 m event. She won the European indoor title in 1973, placing third in 1975, and had another third-place finish at the 1971 European Outdoor Championships. She reached the 1500 m finals at the

1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using Solar time, me ...

and

1976 Summer Olympics Events January * January 3 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 11 – The 1976 Phi ...

, but abandoned the 1972 race due to stomach cramps. In 1971 she helped to set a new world record in the 4 × 800 m relay. Domestically Tittel set a national record in 1969 and won the national title in 1970-76. In 1975 she was chosen the

German Sportspersonality of the Year The German Sportspersonality of the Year has been chosen annually since 1947, with separate awards made for men and women. The record holder is tennis player Steffi Graf, who won five awards. Swimmer Michael Groß, tennis player Boris Becker, a ...

. Tittel is a lawyer by profession. Before turning to athletics she tried gymnastics, but found it too boring. She married two fellow Olympic middle-distance runners, first

Paul-Heinz Wellmann Paul-Heinz Wellmann (born 31 March 1952, in Haiger) is a former West German middle-distance runner who specialized in the 1500 metres. As a teenager he won the silver medal at the 1970 European Junior Championships. He then finished seventh ...

, and a few years later

Thomas Wessinghage Thomas Wessinghage (born 22 February 1952 in Hagen, North Rhine-Westphalia) is a German former middle- and long-distance runner who won the 1982 European Championships' final over 5000 metres beating the British world-record holder David Moorcro ...

. With Wessinghage she has a son Daniel.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tittel, Ellen 1948 births Living people People from Sächsische Schweiz-Osterzgebirge German female middle-distance runners Sportspeople from Saxony Olympic athletes of West Germany Athletes (track and field) at the 1972 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 1976 Summer Olympics Universiade medalists in athletics (track and field) European Athletics Championships medalists Universiade gold medalists for West Germany