Svetlana Styrkina (; née Moschenuk; born 1 January 1949) 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.Soviet Indoor Championships. GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 2017-04-03.Soviet Championships. GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 2017-04-03.
Born in Mogilev, Styrkina rose to be one of the world's top 800 metres runners in the late 1970s.Svetlana Styrkina. Sports Reference. Retrieved on 2017-04-03. She achieved her lifetime best of 1:56.44 minutes in the women's 800 metres final at the 1976 Montreal Olympics, but this was only enough for fifth place as it was the fastest race ever at that point, with the winner Tatyana Kazankina breaking the world record.Athletics at the 1976 Montréal Summer Games: Women's 800 metres. Sports Reference. Retrieved on 2017-04-03. Styrkina's time still ranks her among the world's top 50 for the event, as of 2017.800 metres Senior Women All-Time. IAAF. Retrieved on 2017-04-03. She also helped set a world record in 1976, running a time of 3:29.06 minutes in a mile relay race alongside Inta Kļimoviča, Natalya Sokolova and Nadezhda Ilyina.Soviet women break world track records. Chicago Tribune (1976-08-08). Retrieved on 2017-04-03.
Styrkina remained prominent on the international circuit the following year, with a fourth-place finish at the 1977 European Athletics Indoor Championships and top three finishes at the 1977 IAAF World Cup and the 1977 European Cup.European Cup (women). GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 2017-04-03.World Cup. GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 2017-04-03. Her season's best time of 1:58.73 minutes ranked her sixth in the world. She competed at a high level in the remainder of the late 1970s, recording 1:57.9 minutes in 1978 and 1:58.0 minutes in 1979, before dropping off the international scene.Svetlana Styrkina. Track and Field Brinkster. Retrieved on 2017-04-03.
After retiring from competition she went into coaching, with double Olympic champion Svetlana Masterkova among her charges.Sleeman, Elizabeth (2001). The International Who's Who of Women 2002. Psychology Press. 9781857431223. Retrieved on 2017-04-03.
International competitions 1976Olympic GamesMontreal, Canada5th800 m1:56.441977European Indoor ChampionshipsSan Sebastián, Spain4th800 m1:56.44European CupHelsinki, Finland3rd800 m2:00.96IAAF World CupDüsseldorf, West Germany3rd800 m1:59.72
National titles Soviet Athletics Championships 800 m: 1977 Soviet Indoor Athletics Championships 800 m: 1977, 1979
References
External links
All-Athletics