German sprinter
Gesine Walther (born 6 October 1962) is a retired German sprinter .[1]
Biography
In 1982 Walther became the first European indoor champion in the 200 m event.[2] At the 1982 European Championships she finished fifth in the 100 m , fourth in the 200 m and won a gold medal in the 4 × 100 m relay together with teammates Bärbel Wöckel , Sabine Günther and Marlies Göhr . The team finished in 42.19 seconds with Walther running the first leg.[3]
On 3 June 1984 in Erfurt , Walther, together with Sabine Busch, Dagmar Rübsam and Marita Koch, set a world record in the 4 × 400 m relay of 3:15.92 minutes. Both the world record and the European record was improved at the 1988 Olympics .[4]
Walther represented the sports club SC Turbine Erfurt , and won silver medals at the East German championships in 1984 (100 m)[5] and 1980 and 1982 (200 m).[6] Her personal best times were 11.13 in the 100 m, achieved in August 1982 in Cottbus ,[7] 22.24 in the 200 m, achieved in July 1982 in Dresden [8] and 50.03 in the 400 m , achieved in May 1984 in Jena .[9]
Walther is 1.76 metres tall; during her active career she weighed 65 kg.
European Athletics Championships champions in women's 4 × 100 metres relay
1938: Germany (Kohl, Krauß , Albus , Kühnel)
1946: Netherlands (Van der Kade-Koudijs , Witziers-Timmer , Adema, Blankers-Koen )
1950: Great Britain (Hay , Desforges , Hall , Foulds )
1954: Soviet Union (Krepkina , Uliskina, Itkina , Turova )
1958: Soviet Union (Krepkina , Kepp , Polyakova, Maslovska )
1962: Poland (Ciepły , Sobotta , Szyroka, Piątkowska )
1966: Poland (Bednarek , Straszyńska , Kirszenstein , Kłobukowska )
1969: East Germany (Höfer , Meissner , Podeswa , Vogt )
1971: West Germany (Schittenhelm , Helten , Irrgang , Mickler )
1974: East Germany (Maletzki , Stecher , Heinich , Eckert )
1978: Soviet Union (Anisimova , Maslakova , Kondratyeva , Storozhkova)
1982: East Germany (Walther , Eckert , Rieger , Göhr )
1986: East Germany (Gladisch , Rieger , Brestrich-Auerswald , Göhr )
1990: East Germany (Möller , Krabbe , Behrendt , Günther )
1994: Germany (Paschke , Knoll , Zipp , Lichtenhagen )
1998: France (Benth , Bangué , Félix , Arron )
2002: France (Combe , Hurtis , Félix , Sidibé )
2006: Russia (Gushchina , Rusakova , Khabarova , Grigoryeva )
2010: Ukraine (Povh , Pohrebnyak , Ryemyen , Bryzhina )
2012: Germany (Günther , Cibis , Pinto , Sailer )
2014: Great Britain (Philip , Nelson , J. Williams , Henry )
2016: Netherlands (Samuel , Schippers , Van Schagen , Sedney )
2018: Great Britain (Philip , Lansiquot , B. Williams , Asher-Smith )
IAAF World / Continental Cup champions in women's 4 × 100 metres relay
1977: Europe (Possekel , Lynch , Richter , Lannaman )
1979: Europe (Haglund , Réga , Richter , Hunte )
1981: East Germany (Siemon , Wöckel , Walther , Göhr )
1985: East Germany (Gladisch , Rieger , Auerswald , Göhr )
1989: East Germany (Behrendt , Günther , Möller , Oschkenat )
1992: Asia (Gao , Tian , Chen , Xiao )
1994: Africa (Idehen , Tombiri , Opara-Thompson , Onyali )
1998: United States (Taplin , Gaines , Miller , Guidry )
2002: Americas (Lawrence , Campbell , McDonald , Ferguson )
2006: Americas (Bailey , Ferguson-McKenzie , Mothersille , Simpson )
2010: Americas (Mothersille , Ferguson-McKenzie , Solomon , Baptiste )
2014: Americas (Bartoletta , Ahye , Henry-Robinson , Campbell-Brown )
2018: Americas (Tenorio , Miller-Uibo , Prandini , Rosa )