Biography
She trained with Ruth Fuchs at the Motor Jena sport club. As the sport career of Fuchs came to an end, Felke took over the lead in the javelin throw. Her first top finish in the East German athletic championship came in 1978 when she took 3rd place, a result she also achieved in 1981. In 1982 and 1983 she was second and from 1984 through 1989 she won the gold medal.
On 9 September 1988 she became the first woman to ever throw the javelin further than 80 metres. Strictly speaking, this world record throw was measured at 80.00m exactly. However, the rules in force at the time dictated that measurements had to be rounded down to the nearest 2 cm, so it is almost certain that the throw was indeed further than 80 metres.
Her first world record had come on 4 June 1985 in Schwerin when she threw 75.26 meters, a result that she beat later that same day with a throw of 75.40 meters. Her next world record came on 29 July 1987 in Leipzig when she threw 78.90 meters. At the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul she won the gold medal in front of silver medalist Fatima Whitbread of Britain and bronze medalist Beate Koch of (East) Germany. At the height of her career she was 1.72 metres (5 ft 8 in) tall and weighed 64 kilograms.
Read more about this topic: Petra Felke
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