Erhardt, Anneli

Teens

Anneli Erhardt's sports career began in 1961 when she entered the Halberstadt sports boarding school ( German: Sportinternat Halberstadt ). In 1966, her first sporting success came to her - a victory at the youth sports contest in the 80-meter hurdles. In the same year, she moved to the sports school of the SK Magdeburg club, where she trained under the direction of Klaus Wübbenhorst ( German: Klaus Wübbenhorst ). In 1967, she became the champion of the youth sports day for the second time, and in 1968 she won the European Youth Games in Odessa , and then at the European Junior Championships in Leipzig (11.1 s ^[1] ).

1970-1971

In 1970, Annelie married the canoeist rower Manfred Erhardt and from that time on he performed under the surname Erhardt.

On July 5, 1970, at the GDR championship, she repeated the world record at a distance of 200 meters with barriers (25.8 s). In March 1971, she took second place after the best hurdler in the world Karin Balzer at a distance of 60 meters with barriers at the European Winter Championships in Helsinki ^[2] .

In the same year, Erhardt won the silver medal at the European Championships at a distance of 100 meters with barriers.

1972. Munich Olympics

Since that time, Erhardt, who was previously in the shadow of her teammate, begins to take a leading position in women's hurdles. On June 28, 1972 in Potsdam, Erhardt showed a result of 12.5 s at a distance of 100 meters with barriers, which is 0.1 seconds better than the world record Karin Balzer ^[2] .

In 1972, Anelli Erhardt is a clear favorite. She sets and then repeats the world record at a distance of 100 meters with barriers - 12.5 s. In addition to her, the Australian Pamela Kilborn-Ryan had the same result this year. At the Olympic Games in Munich, Erhardt from the very beginning shows a significant advantage over rivals. In preliminary races, she shows the best time of 12.70 s (against 12.93 and 12.94 for her main rivals Pamela Kilborn-Ryan and Romanian Valeria Stefanescu). In the semifinals, she is again the best (12.73 s), although five of her rivals immediately show a time better than 13 seconds.

In the final, Ryan and Erhardt got the best start, but Erhardt increased her lead with every step and finished first with a result of 12.59 seconds. Karin Balzer in the middle of the distance caught up with Ryan, but due to the rapid finish she was beaten by Stefanescu, who finished second, losing 0.25 seconds to Erhardt. To this day, this is the biggest gap between the champion and the silver medalist at this distance in the history of the Olympics. Balzer finished third in 0.31 seconds after Erhardt ^[3] . The result of the winner was the first officially recorded world record at this distance in an electronic stopwatch ^[2] .

1973-1975

On July 22, 1973, at the GDR Championship in Dresden, Erhardt runs the distance in 12.3 seconds using a manual stopwatch, which is 0.2 seconds better than her world record. The electronic stopwatch, however, shows 12.66 s, which is worse than its "electronic" time at the 1972 Olympics. This result is the last officially registered world stopwatch record. In the future, records were recorded only by electronics ^[2] .

In 1974, Erhardt won the European Championships.

1976. Montreal Olympics

In Montreal at the second Olympics in 1976, Erhardt was unable to perform in full force due to injuries. In the second semi-final, she took third place, which allowed her to get into the finals, but the Soviet athlete Lyubov Kononova, who ran here, went beyond the limits of her path and faced the silver medalist of the last Olympics, Romanian Valeria Stefanescu, who as a result came only sixth. Love Kononova was disqualified, the race was repeated. In the second run Erhardt took fifth place and did not reach the final ^[3] . Shortly after the Olympics, Erhardt left the sport.

• Annelie Ehrhardt . Abteilung Leichtathletik im SC Magdeburg eV
• Annelie Ehrhardt - Olympic Statistics at Sports-Reference.com