Athletics at the 1959 World Festival of Youth and Students

The 7th World Festival of Youth and Students featured an athletics competition among its programme of events. The events were contested in Vienna, Austria in August 1957. Mainly contested among Eastern European athletes, it served as an alternative to the more Western European-oriented 1959 Universiade held in Turin the same year.[1]

Four reigning men's champions from the 1958 European Athletics Championships were present at the competition: high jumper Richard Dahl, long jumper Igor Ter-Ovanesyan, javelin thrower Janusz Sidło and discus thrower Edmund Piątkowski (the latter a world record holder at the time).[2][3] Sidło's fifth win in Union Internationale des Étudiants (UIE) competition made him the most successful individual athlete of the competition's history.[1]

In the women's competition, Vera Krepkina did a 100 metres/long jump double and she became Olympic champion in the latter event a year later. The emerging Tamara Press dominated the shot put and discus throw (a year later she became an Olympic champion in both disciplines). Iolanda Balaș, reigning European champion at the time, retained her high jump title for a fourth straight UIE win.[1][4][5]

Medal summary

Men

Event Gold Silver Bronze
100 metres  Jerzy Juskowiak (POL) 10.5  Edvin Ozolin (URS) 10.6  Reinhard Seidler (GDR) 10.7
200 metres  Jerzy Kowalski (POL) 21.4  Vilém Mandlík (TCH) 21.5  Edvin Ozolin (URS) 21.5
400 metres  Jerzy Kowalski (POL) 48.2  Jaroslav Jirásek (TCH) 48.5  Vilém Mandlík (TCH) 48.9
800 metres  Siegfried Valentin (GDR) 1:49.3  Traian Sudrigean (ROM) 1:51.0  Ingemar Hägglund (SWE) 1:52.9
1500 metres  Siegfried Valentin (GDR) 3:49.4  Witold Baran (POL) 3:51.1  Hans Grodotzki (GDR) 3:54.0
5000 metres  Friedrich Janke (GDR) 14:12.6  Aleksandr Artinyuk (URS) 14:13.2  Osvaldo Suárez (ARG) 14:14.4
110 m hurdles  Anatoliy Mikhailov (URS) 14.4  Ivan Veselský (TCH) 15.3  Georgi Kaburov (BUL) 15.5
400 m hurdles  Hans Dittner (GDR) 53.4  Ingvar Carlsson (SWE) 53.9  Elio Catola (ITA) 54.1
High jump  Igor Kashkarov (URS) 2.09 m  Jiří Lanský (TCH) 2.03 m  Richard Dahl (SWE) 2.00 m
Pole vault  Gerhard Jeitner (GDR) 4.30 m  Ihor Petrenko (URS) 4.20 m  Peter Laufer (GDR) 4.20 m
Long jump  Igor Ter-Ovanesyan (URS) 7.61 m  Branko Miler (YUG) 7.02 m  Peter Becher (GDR) 6.90 m
Triple jump  Oleg Ryakhovskiy (URS) 15.21 m  Y. Sidorov (URS) 14.82 m  Karl Thierfelder (GDR) 14.57 m
Shot put  Fritz Kühl (GDR) 16.12 m  Dako Radošević (YUG) 15.62 m  Manfred Grieser (GDR) 15.12 m
Discus throw  Edmund Piątkowski (POL) 57.87 m  Manfred Grieser (GDR) 54.60 m  Fritz Kühl (GDR) 52.54 m
Hammer throw  Heinrich Thun (AUT) 61.23 m  Olgierd Ciepły (POL) 60.70 m  Imre Trényi (HUN) 58.95 m
Javelin throw  Janusz Sidło (POL) 76.53 m  Vladimir Kuznetsov (URS) 75.08 m  Alexandru Bizim (ROM) 74.27 m

Women

Event Gold Silver Bronze
100 metres  Vera Krepkina (URS) 11.7  Gisela Birkemeyer (GDR) 11.9  Olga Šikovec (YUG) 12.2
200 metres  Lyudmila Ignatyeva (URS) 24.4  Gisela Birkemeyer (GDR) 24.5  Antónia Munkácsi (HUN) 24.6
400 metres  Maria Bienia (POL) 58.5  Bedriška Kulhavá (TCH) 58.8  Antónia Munkácsi (HUN) 60.0
80 m hurdles  Gisela Birkemeyer (GDR) 10.9  Alena Stolzová (TCH) 11.3  Draga Stamejcic (YUG) 11.4
High jump  Iolanda Balaș (ROM) 1.75 m  Taisiya Chenchik (URS) 1.70 m  Margarita Fatyanova (URS) 1.55 m
Long jump  Vera Krepkina (URS) 6.12 m  Teresa Wieczorek (POL) 5.98 m  Hildrun Claus (GDR) 5.75 m
Shot put  Tamara Press (URS) 16.65 m  Johanna Lüttge (GDR) 15.25 m  Judit Bognár (HUN) 15.09 m
Discus throw  Tamara Press (URS) 55.80 m  Štepánka Mertová (TCH) 51.20 m  Irene Schuch (GDR) 50.75 m
Javelin throw  Alevtina Shastikova (URS) 54.33 m  Dana Zátopková (TCH) 54.09 m  Biruté Zalogaitité (URS) 52.25 m

Medal table

RankNationGoldSilverBronzeTotal
1 Soviet Union (URS)106319
2 East Germany (GDR)74920
3 Poland (POL)6309
4 Romania (ROM)1113
5 Austria (AUT)1001
6 Czechoslovakia (TCH)0819
7 Yugoslavia (YUG)0224
8 Sweden (SWE)0123
9 Hungary (HUN)0044
10 Argentina (ARG)0011
 Bulgaria (BUL)0011
 Italy (ITA)0011
Totals (12 entries)25252575

References

  1. ^ a b c World Student Games (UIE). GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 2014-12-09.
  2. ^ "13th IAAF World Championships In Athletics: IAAF Statistics Handbook. Berlin 2011" (PDF). Monte Carlo: IAAF Media & Public Relations Department. 2011. pp. 606, 607. Archived from the original (PDF) on August 18, 2012. Retrieved 10 August 2011.
  3. ^ European Championships (Men). GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 2014-12-11.
  4. ^ European Championships (Women). GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 2014-12-11.
  5. ^ Olympic Medallists - Athletics (Women). GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 2014-12-11.
Results