# Athletics at the Friendship Games

Athletics at the Friendship Games was contested in 41 events, 24 events by men and 17 by women. Men competed at the Grand Arena of the Central Lenin Stadium (now Luzhniki Stadium) in Moscow, Soviet Union between 17 and 18 August, while women's events took place at the Evžen Rošický Stadium in Prague, Czechoslovakia between 16 and 18 August 1984.
One new world record was set, by East German Irina Meszynski in women's discus throw, with 73.36 m. As of 2024, it still ranks Meszynski sixth on the world all-time list.
In an unusual feat, Alberto Juantorena (Cuba) and Ryszard Ostrowski (Poland) both crossed the finish line at exactly the same moment in the men's 800 metres. After the officials were unable to split them using a photo-finish, both were declared gold medalists.
The Soviet Union dominated the final medal tally, winning 24 gold and 63 total medals. East Germany finished second, with 8 and 19 respectively.

## Medal summary
### Men

| Event | Gold | Gold | Silver | Silver | Bronze | Bronze |
| 100 metres (wind: -0.4 m/s) details | Osvaldo Lara (CUB) | 10.17 | Attila Kovács (HUN) | 10.18 | Leandro Peñalver (CUB) | 10.21 |
| 200 metres (wind: -1.2 m/s) details | Vladimir Muravyov (URS) | 20.34 | Aleksandr Yevgenyev (URS) | 20.41 | Olaf Prenzler (GDR) | 20.58 |
| 400 metres details | Viktor Markin (URS) | 44.78 | Aleksandr Troshchilo (URS) | 45.51 | Aleksandr Kurochkin (URS) | 45.57 |
| 800 metres details | Alberto Juantorena (CUB) Ryszard Ostrowski (POL) | 1:45.68 | none awarded | – | Viktor Kalinkin (URS) | 1:45.82 |
| 1500 metres details | Andreas Busse (GDR) | 3:36.65 | Anatoliy Kalutskiy (URS) | 3:37.35 | Igor Lotaryov (URS) | 3:38.42 |
| 5000 metres details | Evgeni Ignatov (BUL) | 13:26.35 | Dmitriy Dmitriyev (URS) | 13:26.85 | Wodajo Bulti (ETH) | 13:29.08 |
| 10,000 metres details | Valeriy Abramov (URS) | 27:55.16 | Wodajo Bulti (ETH) | 27:58.97 | Bekele Debele (ETH) | 28:03.06 |
| Marathon details | Dereje Nedi (ETH) | 2:10:32 | Abebe Mekonnen (ETH) | 2:11:30 | Lee Jong-hyong (PRK) | 2:11:44 |
| 110 metres hurdles (wind: -0.5 m/s) details | György Bakos (HUN) | 13.52 | Vyacheslav Ustinov (URS) | 13.57 | Thomas Munkelt (GDR) | 13.64 |
| 400 metres hurdles details | Aleksandr Vasilyev (URS) | 48.63 | Vladimir Budko (URS) | 48.74 | Toma Tomov (BUL) | 49.29 |
| 3000 metres steeplechase details | Bogusław Mamiński (POL) | 8:27.15 | Hagen Melzer (GDR) | 8:27.43 | Jan Hagelbrandt (SWE) | 8:32.36 |
| 4 × 100 metres relay details | Soviet Union (URS) Aleksandr Yevgenyev Sergey Sokolov Vladimir Muravyov Nikolay Sidorov | 38.32 | Cuba (CUB) Tomás González Leandro Peñalver Silvio Leonard Osvaldo Lara | 38.79 | Poland (POL) Krzysztof Zwoliński Marian Woronin Czesław Prądzyński Arkadiusz Janiak | 38.81 |
| 4 × 400 metres relay details | Soviet Union (URS) Sergey Lovachev Yevgeniy Lomtev Aleksandr Kurochkin Viktor Markin | 3:00.16 | East Germany (GDR) Carlo Niestädt Mathias Schersing Thomas Schönlebe Jens Carlowitz | 3:00.47 | Cuba (CUB) Lázaro Martínez Carlos Reyte Roberto Ramos Alberto Juantorena | 3:04.76 |
| 20 kilometres walk details | Sergey Protsishin (URS) | 1:21:57 | Anatoliy Solomin (URS) | 1:22:21 | Nikolay Polozov (URS) | 1:22:40 |
| 50 kilometres walk details | Andrey Perlov (URS) | 3:43:06 | Pavol Szikora (TCH) | 3:45:53 | Viktor Dorovskikh (URS) | 3:58:47 |
| High jump details | Valeriy Sereda (URS) | 2.25 m | Javier Sotomayor (CUB) | 2.25 m | Dariusz Zielke (POL) | 2.20 m |
| Pole vault details | Konstantin Volkov (URS) | 5.80 m | Sergey Bubka (URS) | 5.70 m | Aleksandr Krupskiy (URS) | 5.70 m |
| Long jump details | Konstantin Semykin (URS) | 8.38 m | Jaime Jefferson (CUB) | 8.37 m | Sergey Layevskiy (URS) | 8.22 m |
| Triple jump details | Oleg Protsenko (URS) | 17.46 m | Aleksandr Yakovlev (URS) | 17.41 m | Khristo Markov (BUL) | 17.29 m |
| Shot put details | Sergey Kasnauskas (URS) | 21.64 m | Udo Beyer (GDR) | 21.60 m | Vladimir Kiselyov (URS) | 21.58 m |
| Discus throw details | Yuriy Dumchev (URS) | 66.70 m | Juan Martínez (CUB) | 66.04 m | Jürgen Schult (GDR) | 66.02 m |
| Hammer throw details | Yuriy Sedykh (URS) | 85.60 m | Igor Nikulin (URS) | 82.56 m | Sergey Litvinov (URS) | 81.30 m |
| Javelin throw details | Uwe Hohn (GDR) | 94.44 m | Detlef Michel (GDR) | 88.32 m | Zdeněk Adamec (TCH) | 87.10 m |
| Decathlon details | Grigoriy Degtyaryev (URS) | 8523 | Torsten Voss (GDR) | 8450 | Igor Sobolevskiy (URS) | 8433 |

### Women

| Event | Gold | Gold | Silver | Silver | Bronze | Bronze |
| 100 metres (wind: -0.2 m/s) details | Marlies Göhr (GDR) | 10.95 | Lyudmila Kondratyeva (URS) | 11.02 | Anelia Nuneva (BUL) | 11.10 |
| 200 metres (wind: -0.3 m/s) details | Bärbel Wöckel (GDR) | 22.15 | Svetlana Zhizdrikova (URS) | 22.75 | Nadezhda Georgieva (BUL) | 22.79 |
| 400 metres details | Marita Koch (GDR) | 48.16 | Taťána Kocembová (TCH) | 48.73 | Olga Vladykina (URS) | 49.52 |
| 800 metres details | Irina Podyalovskaya (URS) | 1:57.31 | Zuzana Moravčíková (TCH) | 1:58.06 | Nadiya Olizarenko (URS) | 1:58.10 |
| 1500 metres details | Nadezhda Ralldugina (URS) | 3:56.63 | Ravilya Agletdinova (URS) | 3:58.70 | Yekaterina Podkopayeva (URS) | 4:01.61 |
| 3000 metres details | Tatyana Kazankina (URS) | 8:33.01 | Natalya Artyomova (URS) | 8:40.53 | Olga Bondarenko (URS) | 8:43.74 |
| 100 metres hurdles (wind: -0.2 m/s) details | Yordanka Donkova (BUL) | 12.55 | Sabine Paetz (GDR) | 12.60 | Lucyna Kałek (POL) | 12.61 |
| 400 metres hurdles details | Marina Stepanova (URS) | 53.67 | Yekaterina Grun (URS) | 54.42 | Margarita Ponomaryova (URS) | 54.65 |
| Marathon details | Zoya Ivanova (URS) | 2:33:44 | Lucia Belyayeva (URS) | 2:33:54 | Raisa Smekhnova (URS) | 2:33:59 |
| 4 × 100 metres relay details | Bulgaria (BUL) Pepa Pavlova Anelia Nuneva Nadezhda Georgieva Liliyana Ivanova | 42.62 | Soviet Union (URS) Lyudmila Kondratyeva Maia Azarashvili Svetlana Zhizdrikova Olga Antonova | 42.71 | Czechoslovakia (TCH) Eva Murková Taťána Kocembová Renata Černochová Jarmila Kratochvílová | 43.21 |
| 4 × 400 metres relay details | Soviet Union (URS) Irina Baskakova Irina Nazarova Mariya Pinigina Olga Bryzgina | 3:19.12 | Czechoslovakia (TCH) Alena Bulířová Zuzana Moravčíková Jarmila Kratochvílová Taťána Kocembová | 3:21.89 | Bulgaria (BUL) Galina Penkova Katia Ilieva Radostina Shtereva Rositsa Stamenova | 3:28.34 |
| High jump details | Lyudmila Andonova (BUL) | 1.96 m | Lyudmila Butuzova (URS) | 1.96 m | Tamara Bykova (URS) | 1.96 m |
| Long jump details | Heike Drechsler (GDR) | 7.15 m | Helga Radtke (GDR) | 7.11 m | Galina Chistyakova (URS) | 7.11 m |
| Shot put details | Natalya Lisovskaya (URS) | 21.96 m | Helena Fibingerová (TCH) | 21.33 m | Nunu Abashidze (URS) | 21.18 m |
| Discus throw details | Irina Meszynski (GDR) | 73.36 m (WR) | Galina Murašova (URS) | 72.14 m | Zdenka Šilhavá (TCH) | 70.14 m |
| Javelin throw details | Petra Felke (GDR) | 73.30 m | Antoaneta Todorova (BUL) | 65.40 m | María Caridad Colón (CUB) | 64.34 m |
| Heptathlon details | Natalya Gracheva (URS) | 6477 | Nadezhda Vinogradova (URS) | 6357 | Heike Tischler (GDR) | 6290 |

## World records broken

1 new world record was set.
| Event | Name | Nationality | Result |
| Women's discus throw | Irina Meszynski | East Germany | 73.36 m |

## Medal table

* Host nation (Host nations (Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union))
| Rank | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
| 1 | Soviet Union (URS)* | 24 | 20 | 19 | 63 |
| 2 | East Germany (GDR) | 8 | 7 | 4 | 19 |
| 3 | Bulgaria (BUL) | 4 | 1 | 5 | 10 |
| 4 | Cuba (CUB) | 3 | 3 | 3 | 9 |
| 5 | Poland (POL) | 2 | 0 | 3 | 5 |
| 6 | Ethiopia (ETH) | 1 | 2 | 2 | 5 |
| 7 | Hungary (HUN) | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| 8 | Czechoslovakia (TCH)* | 0 | 5 | 3 | 8 |
| 9 | North Korea (PRK) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 9 | Sweden (SWE) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Totals (10 entries) | Totals (10 entries) | 43 | 39 | 41 | 123 |

## Participating nations

* Algeria (4)
* Argentina (3)
* Austria (8)
* Belgium (2)
* Benin (5)
* Bulgaria (49)
* Cambodia (11)
* Cape Verde (2)
* Colombia (5)
* Cuba (35)
* Czechoslovakia (65)
* East Germany (48)
* Ethiopia (10)
* Finland (4)
* France (1)
* Guinea (7)
* Guinea-Bissau (4)
* Great Britain (5)
* Hungary (28)
* Italy (5)
* Lebanon (5)
* Madagascar (2)
* Malaysia (6)
* Mongolia (3)
* Nicaragua (2)
* North Korea (3)
* Peru (4)
* Poland (43)
* Portugal (2)
* Seychelles (3)
* South Yemen (9)
* Soviet Union (131)
* Sweden (3)
* Switzerland (4)
* Syria (2)
* Tanzania (2)
* United States (1)
* Vietnam (2)
* West Germany (1)