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Jarmila Kratochvilova
Jarmila Kratochvílová ( ; born 26 January 1951, in Golčův Jeníkov) is a Czech former track and field athlete. She won the 400 metres and 800 metres at the 1983 World Championships, setting a world record in the 400 m. In 1983, she also set the world record for the 800 metres, which still stands and which is currently the longest-standing individual world record in athletics. Only one athlete, Pamela Jelimo of Kenya, in 2008, has come within a second of Kratochvílová's mark since it was set.
Biography
In 1983, Kratochvílová broke the 800 m world record with a time of 1:53.28. At the World Championships shortly afterwards, she won the 800 m and set a world record of 47.99 seconds to win the 400 m.
Kratochvílová's 1983 400-metre world record of 47.99 seconds stood for only 2 years until it was broken by Marita Koch in 1985. Koch's 400 metre world record of 47.60 seconds still stands as of 2015.
Koch and Kratochvílová are the only women who have broken the 48 second barrier in a 400-metre laned race.
Kratochvílová's remarkably fast times and her atypical physique spawned rumors of illegal drug use.
[ Source: Wikipedia ]