| Medal record | ||
|---|---|---|
| Women's athletics | ||
Representing the  United States | ||
| IAAF World Cup | ||
 | 1979 Montreal | 400 m hurdles |
Deborah Esser-Karman (born March 26, 1957) is an American former track and field athlete who competed in the 400-meter hurdles.
| Medal record | ||
|---|---|---|
| Women's athletics | ||
| Representing the United States | ||
| IAAF World Cup | ||
| 1979 Montreal | 400 m hurdles |
Deborah Esser-Karman (born March 26, 1957) is an American former track and field athlete who competed in the 400-meter hurdles.
Esser attended high school in Woodbine, Iowa and went on to break the national high school record for the 400 m hurdles. She was chosen as the Track & Field News High School Athlete of the Year in 1976. She continued hurdling while at Iowa State University and became the first woman to take four collegiate titles in the same event, winning the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) championship in the 400 m hurdles. She left college with nine All-American honours and 15 Big Eight Conference titles for the Iowa State Cyclones team and was inducted into the institution's hall of fame in 1998. [1] [2]
Esser twice broke the American record in the 400 m hurdles in the period before it was a standard international event for women. Her first record was 58.98 seconds, set on June 11, 1976, and she improved this to 57.07 seconds on May 21, 1977. The 57.07 was winning the AIAW National Track and Field Championship at Drake Stadium. [3] Her lifetime best for the event was 56.63 seconds, set in 1979. [4]
She was a mainstay of the American women's hurdles scene in the 1970s. She won two national titles, setting a championship record of 57.3 seconds in 1975 and returning to the top in 1978. [5] She made the top three nationally in 1976, 1977 and 1979. [4] Her sole international honour was a bronze medal at the 1979 IAAF World Cup held in Montreal. [6] [7]
| Year | Competition | Venue | Position | Event | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1979 | IAAF World Cup | Montreal, Canada | 3rd | 400 m hurdles | 56.75 |
The World Athletics Championships are a biennial athletics competition organized by World Athletics. Alongside the Olympic Games, they represent the highest level championships of senior international outdoor athletics competition for track and field athletics globally, including marathon running and race walking. Separate World Championships are held by World Athletics for certain other outdoor events, including cross-country running and half-marathon, as well as indoor and age-group championships.
The 400 metres hurdles is a track and field hurdling event. The event has been on the Olympic athletics programme since 1900 for men and since 1984 for women.
John Bryan Bronson is an American 400-meter hurdler, who won the bronze medal at the 1997 World Championships in Athens. He also represented his country at the 1996 Summer Olympics. He won three consecutive titles at the USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships from 1996 to 1998.
Brenda Taylor is an American track and field athlete who specialises in the 400 meter hurdles. She reached the final of the event at the 2004 Summer Olympics. She also competed at the 2001 World Championships in Athletics and won a medal at the 2003 IAAF World Indoor Championships in the 4×400-meter relay.
Elma Muros-Posadas also known as the "Long Jump Queen" of the Philippines and a heptathlon champion, is a former member of the Philippine Track and Field National Team and now a legend in Philippine track and field history who specialized in long jump. She also competed in the heptathlon, 100m and 400m hurdles, 100m, 200m, and 400m sprint alongside the "Sprint Queen" of the Philippines and also fellow legend, Lydia de Vega. Elma is one of the foremost track and field athletes produced by the Philippines under the Marcos Regime's National Sports Program, Gintong Alay, that was launched in 1979, but was eventually disbanded in 1986 due to the People Power Revolution and the ousting of Ferdinand Marcos. Later on Gintong Alay was disbanded and became the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) which was established in 1990.
María Princesa Oliveros Bohórquez is a Colombian track and field athlete who competes in the 100 metres hurdles and 400 metres hurdles events. Her personal bests are 13.41 seconds and 56.26 seconds, respectively. She was the gold medallist in the 400 m hurdles at the 2011 Pan American Games, at which she also won a 4×400 metres relay bronze medal in a Colombian record time.
Dalilah Muhammad is an American track and field athlete who specializes in the 400 meters hurdles. She is the 2016 Rio Olympics champion and 2020 Tokyo Olympics silver medalist, becoming at the latter the second-fastest woman of all time in the event with her personal best of 51.58 seconds. Muhammad was second at both the 2013 and 2017 World Championships to take her first gold in 2019, setting the former world record of 52.16 s. She was the second female 400 m hurdler in history, after Sally Gunnell, to have won the Olympic, World titles and broken the world record. At both the 2019 World Championships and Tokyo Games, she also took gold as part of women's 4×400 metres relay team.
Garry Brown is an Australian former track and field athlete who specialised in the 400 metres hurdles. He was the champion in that event at the 1982 Commonwealth Games after winning two minor medals at the 1978 Commonwealth Games. His personal best of 49.37 seconds was set as part of his Commonwealth win.
Randy Jenelle Givens is an American former track and field athlete who competed in sprinting events. She set personal bests of 11.06 seconds for the 100-meter dash and 22.31 seconds for the 200-meter dash. Givens was a 200 m finalist at the 1984 Olympic Games and represented her country at the 1983 World Championships in Athletics. She was the 200 m gold medalist at the 1983 Pan American Games and returned to win a silver medal at the 1987 edition.
Jacqueline "Jackie" Pusey is a Jamaican former track and field sprinter. She competed over distances from 100 metres to 400 metres. She represented Jamaica at the 1976 Summer Olympics and competed a second time at the 1980 Summer Olympics.
Leleith Hodges is a Jamaican former track and field sprinter who competed mainly in the 100 metres. She was one of Jamaica's most prominent female runners of the 1970s.
Leng Xueyan is a Chinese former track and field athlete who competed in the 400 metres hurdles. She was the Asian Games champion in 1994 and runner-up at the Asian Athletics Championships in 1993. She set a personal best of 54.52 seconds in 1993. She was also an Asian Games gold medalist in the 4×400 metres relay.
Han Qing is a Chinese former track and field athlete who competed in the 200 metres and 400 metres hurdles. Her personal best of 53.96 seconds in the hurdles is an Asian record, shared with Song Yinglan. She was the Asian Games champion over 200 m in 1990 and initially won the 400 m hurdles gold medal in 1994, before being disqualified for doping.
Emi Akimoto is a Japanese former track and field athlete who specialised in the 100 metres hurdles. She was the gold medallist in the event at the Asian Athletics Championships three times consecutively from 1979 to 1983, breaking the championship record each time. She won two gold medals at the Asian Games in 1982, running in the hurdles and 4×100 metres relay.
Takashi Nagao is a Japanese former track and field athlete who competed in the 400 metres hurdles. He was the gold medallist at the 1982 Asian Games and the 1981 Asian Athletics Championships, as well as runner-up at those tournaments in 1978 and 1979.
Angie Vaughn is an American former track and field athlete who specialized in hurdles. She was the 100-meter hurdles winner at the 1998 Goodwill Games and a silver medalist in the event at the 1998 IAAF World Cup. Collegiately, she ran for the Texas Longhorns and was a three-time champion at NCAA-level, winning two hurdles title and one in the relay.
Laurence Elloy-Machabey is a French track and field athlete who competed in the sprint hurdles. She is a former French national record holder with her best of 12.69 seconds for the 100 metres hurdles. She twice represented France at both the Summer Olympics and the World Championships in Athletics and was a three-time participant at the European Athletics Championships.
Svetlana Styrkina is a Belarusian former middle-distance runner for the Soviet Union. She represented her country at the 1976 Summer Olympics and was a three-time Soviet national champion.
Lyubov Nikitenko is a Kazakhstani former track and field hurdler for the Soviet Union. Born in Kostanay, she competed in the 100 metres hurdles at the 1976 Summer Olympics, where she was disqualified in the semi-finals.
Christine Warden is an English former 400 metres hurdler. She finished fourth representing Europe at the 1979 IAAF World Cup and reached the 1980 World Championship final. Her 400 m hurdles best of 56.06 seconds set in 1979, is a former British record and still ranks her in the UK all-time top 20.