__NOTOC__ Anita Stukāne (née ''Balode,'' born 9 February 1954) is a

Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

n former

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

track and field Track and field (or athletics in British English) is a sport that includes Competition#Sports, athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name used in North America is derived from where the sport takes place, a ru ...

athlete who competed in 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 ...

. Her personal best for the event was . Her career flourished very briefly in the late seventies and early eighties. She first rose to prominence in 1978 when a jump of ranked her tenth in the world for the season.Anita Balode-Stukane
Brinkster Track and Field. Retrieved on 2015-06-03. During her career, she set an indoor personal best of . The 1979 season marked the pinnacle of her long jumping career. She won her first and only national title at the Soviet Spartakiad, clearing to come out as the Soviet Union's top woman jumper. A lifetime best was achieved at the

Universiade The FISU World University Games, formerly the Universiade, is an international multi-sport event, organized for university athletes by the International University Sports Federation (FISU). The former name is a Blend word, portmanteau of the wor ...

held in

Mexico City Mexico City is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Mexico, largest city of Mexico, as well as the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North America. It is one of the most important cultural and finan ...

, where she took advantage of the altitude to win the gold medal with a mark of , beating

Jodi Anderson Judith ("Jodi") Anderson (born November 10, 1957, in Chicago, Illinois Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, a ...

of the United States. Only Brigitte Wujak jumper further that year. Stukane and Wujak went head-to-head at the

1979 IAAF World Cup The 2nd IAAF World Cup in Athletics was an international track and field sporting event sponsored by the International Association of Athletics Federations, held on August 24–26, 1979, at Olympic Stadium in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Overall re ...

and the Soviet athlete came out on top with a gold medal-winning leap of .IAAF World Cup
GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 2015-06-03. Stukane continued to compete (later getting married and changing her name to ''Anita Balode-Stukāne''), but her highest world ranking after 1979 was 20th in the 1981 season.

National titles

Spartakiad The Spartakiad (or Spartakiade) was an international sports event that was sponsored by the Soviet Union. Five international Spartakiades were held from 1928 to 1937. Later Spartakiads were organized as national sport events of the Eastern Bloc ...

**Long jump: 1979

Personal bests

*Long jump outdoors: (1979) *Long jump indoors: (?)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Stukane, Anita Living people 1954 births Soviet female long jumpers Latvian female long jumpers Universiade medalists in athletics (track and field) FISU World University Games gold medalists for the Soviet Union Medalists at the 1979 Summer Universiade Soviet Athletics Championships winners