Sigrun Wodars

Sigrun Wodars

Sigrun Wodars (right) in 1989
Medal record
Women's athletics
Representing  East Germany
Olympic Games
Gold medal – first place 1988 Seoul 800 m
World Championships
Gold medal – first place 1987 Rome 800 m
European Championships
Gold medal – first place 1990 Split 800 metres
Silver medal – second place 1986 Stuttgart 800 metres

Sigrun Grau (née Ludwigs, then Wodars, born 7 November 1965) is an East German former middle distance athlete who was born Sigrun Ludwigs in Neu Kaliß, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. She started out as a 400 m hurdler in Schwerin and finished fourth at the 1981 European Junior Championships. She then switched clubs and changed to the 800 m like her new club mate, Christine Wachtel, who would also become her closest rival.

Now competing under the name of Wodars, she won her first national title in 1986 and placed second at the European Championships in Stuttgart, behind Nadezhda Olizarenko of the Soviet Union.

In 1987, she lost seven out of eight times to Wachtel, but the race she won was the World Championships in Rome, defeating her in a close finish. The two repeated their one-two finish at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul.[1]

Wodars completed her set of titles by also winning the 1990 European Championships in Split, her last title. She divorced and took part as Sigrun Grau in the 1991 World Championships and the 1992 Olympics, reaching the semi-finals both times. She retired after the Barcelona Olympics and currently works as a physiotherapist.

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Sigrun Wodars-Grau". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 25 October 2018.