1983 World Championships in Athletics – Women's 400 metres

These are the official results of the Women's 400 metres event at the 1983 IAAF World Championships in Helsinki, Finland. There were a total number of 35 participating athletes, with five qualifying heats and the final held on Wednesday 10 August 1983.

Events at the 1983 World Championships
Track events
100 m	men	women
200 m	men	women
400 m	men	women
800 m	men	women
1500 m	men	women
3000 m		women
5000 m	men
10,000 m	men
100 m hurdles		women
110 m hurdles	men
400 m hurdles	men	women
3000 m steeplechase	men
4 × 100 m relay	men	women
4 × 400 m relay	men	women
Road events
Marathon	men	women
20 km walk	men
50 km walk	men
Field events
High jump	men	women
Pole vault	men
Long jump	men	women
Triple jump	men
Shot put	men	women
Discus throw	men	women
Hammer throw	men
Javelin throw	men	women
Combined events
Heptathlon		women
Decathlon	men

Video on YouTube Official video

Jarmila Kratochvílová in lane 3 spent much of the race chasing Mariya Kulchunova-Pinigina to her outside, while Taťána Kocembová quickly made up the stagger on Rosalyn Bryant between the two Czech teammates. Kratochvílová finally made up the stagger on Pinigina in the middle of the final turn and came onto the home stretch barely two metres up on the Soviet and a metre up on her teammate. She widened that to four metres by the finish and Kocembová opened up a similar gap on Pinigina.

Each of the top four competitors in this race set their lifetime best, Kratochvílová only being beaten once with 1985's still standing world record 47.60 by Marita Koch. In addition to Kratochvílová remaining the #2 performer in history, Kocembová is #5, Pinigina is #15. Almost forgotten is #56 Gaby Bußmann, still under 50 seconds.