# 1987 World Championships in Athletics

The 2nd World Championships in Athletics under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations were held in the Stadio Olimpico in Rome, Italy between August 28 and September 6, 1987.

## Men's results
### Track

1983 | 1987 | 1991 | 1993 | 1995
| Games | Gold | Gold | Silver | Silver | Bronze | Bronze |
| 100 m details | Carl Lewis United States | 9.93$^1$ =WR | Ray Stewart Jamaica | 10.08 | Linford Christie Great Britain | 10.14 |
| 200 m details | Calvin Smith United States | 20.16 | Gilles Quénéhervé France | 20.16 | John Regis Great Britain | 20.18 |
| 400 m details | Thomas Schönlebe East Germany | 44.33 AR | Innocent Egbunike Nigeria | 44.56 | Butch Reynolds United States | 44.80 |
| 800 m details | Billy Konchellah Kenya | 1:43.06 CR | Peter Elliott Great Britain | 1:43.41 | José Luíz Barbosa Brazil | 1:43.76 |
| 1500 m details | Abdi Bile Somalia | 3:36.80 | José Luis González Spain | 3:38.03 | Jim Spivey United States | 3:38.82 |
| 5000 m details | Saïd Aouita Morocco | 13:26.44 | Domingos Castro Portugal | 13:27.59 | Jack Buckner Great Britain | 13:27.74 |
| 10,000 m details | Paul Kipkoech Kenya | 27:38.63 CR | Francesco Panetta Italy | 27:48.98 | Hansjörg Kunze East Germany | 27:50.37 |
| Marathon details | Douglas Wakiihuri Kenya | 2:11:48 | Hussein Ahmed Salah Djibouti | 2:12:30 | Gelindo Bordin Italy | 2:12:40 |
| 110 m hurdles details | Greg Foster United States | 13.21 | Jon Ridgeon Great Britain | 13.29 | Colin Jackson Great Britain | 13.38 |
| 400 m hurdles details | Edwin Moses United States | 47.46 CR | Danny Harris United States | 47.48 | Harald Schmid West Germany | 47.48 AR |
| 3000 m st. details | Francesco Panetta Italy | 8:08.57 CR | Hagen Melzer East Germany | 8:10.32 | William Van Dijck Belgium | 8:12.18 |
| 20 km walk details | Maurizio Damilano Italy | 1:20:45 CR | Jozef Pribilinec Czechoslovakia | 1:21:07 | José Marín Spain | 1:21:24 |
| 50 km walk details | Hartwig Gauder East Germany | 3:40:53 CR | Ronald Weigel East Germany | 3:41:30 | Vyacheslav Ivanenko Soviet Union | 3:44:02 |
| 4 × 100 m relay details | United States (USA) Lee McRae Lee McNeill Harvey Glance Carl Lewis Dennis Mitchell* | 37.90 | Soviet Union (URS) Aleksandr Yevgenyev Viktor Bryzgin Vladimir Muravyov Vladimir Krylov Andrey Fedoriv* | 38.02 AR | Jamaica (JAM) John Mair Andrew Smith Clive Wright Ray Stewart | 38.41 |
| 4 × 400 m relay details | United States (USA) Danny Everett Roddie Haley Antonio McKay Butch Reynolds Michael Franks* Raymond Pierre* | 2:57.29 CR | Great Britain (GBR) Derek Redmond Kriss Akabusi Roger Black Phil Brown Todd Bennett* Mark Thomas* | 2:58.86 AR | Cuba (CUB) Leandro Peñalver Agustín Pavó Lázaro Martínez Roberto Hernández | 2:59.16 NR |
| WR world record | AR area record | CR championship record | GR games record | NR national record | OR Olympic record | PB personal best | SB season best | WL world leading (in a given season) |||||| |
$^1$ Ben Johnson of Canada originally won the gold medal in 9.83, but he was disqualified in September 1989 after he admitted to using steroids between 1981 and 1988. * Indicates athletes who ran in preliminary rounds.

### Field

1983 | 1987 | 1991 | 1993 | 1995
| Games | Gold | Gold | Silver | Silver | Bronze | Bronze |
| High jump details | Patrik Sjöberg Sweden | 2.38 CR | Hennadiy Avdyeyenko Soviet UnionIgor Paklin Soviet Union | 2.38 CR | Not awarded | Not awarded |
| Pole vault details | Sergey Bubka Soviet Union | 5.85 CR | Thierry Vigneron France | 5.80 | Radion Gataullin Soviet Union | 5.80 |
| Long jump details | Carl Lewis United States | 8.67 CR | Robert Emmiyan Soviet Union | 8.53 | Larry Myricks United States | 8.33$^1$ |
| Triple jump details | Khristo Markov Bulgaria | 17.92 CR and AR | Mike Conley United States | 17.67 | Oleg Sakirkin Soviet Union | 17.43 |
| Shot put details | Werner Günthör Switzerland | 22.23 CR | Alessandro Andrei Italy | 21.88 | John Brenner United States | 21.75 |
| Discus throw details | Jürgen Schult East Germany | 68.74 CR | John Powell United States | 66.22 | Luis Delís Cuba | 66.02 |
| Hammer throw details | Sergey Litvinov Soviet Union | 83.06 CR | Jüri Tamm Soviet Union | 80.84 | Ralf Haber East Germany | 80.76 |
| Javelin throw details | Seppo Räty Finland | 83.54 CR | Viktor Yevsyukov Soviet Union | 82.52 | Jan Železný Czechoslovakia | 82.20 |
| Decathlon details | Torsten Voss East Germany | 8680 | Siegfried Wentz West Germany | 8461 | Pavel Tarnavetskiy Soviet Union | 8375 |
| WR world record | AR area record | CR championship record | GR games record | NR national record | OR Olympic record | PB personal best | SB season best | WL world leading (in a given season) |||||| |
$^1$ Giovanni Evangelisti of Italy originally won the bronze medal with 8.37 m, but it was later determined that Italian field officials had entered a pre-arranged fake result for a jump of 7.85 m. While Evangelisti had no involvement in or knowledge of the fraud, Italian head coach Sandro Donati, who revealed it, was fired.

## Women's results
### Track

1983 | 1987 | 1991 | 1993 | 1995
| Games | Gold | Gold | Silver | Silver | Bronze | Bronze |
| 100 m details | Silke Gladisch (GDR) | 10.90 CR | Heike Drechsler (GDR) | 11.00 | Merlene Ottey (JAM) | 11.04 |
| 200 m details | Silke Gladisch (GDR) | 21.74 CR | Florence Griffith (USA) | 21.96 | Merlene Ottey (JAM) | 22.06 |
| 400 m details | Olga Bryzgina (URS) | 49.38 | Petra Muller (GDR) | 49.94 | Kirsten Emmelmann (GDR) | 50.20 |
| 800 m details | Sigrun Wodars (GDR) | 1:55.26 NR | Christine Wachtel (GDR) | 1:55.32 | Lyubov Gurina (URS) | 1:55.56 |
| 1500 m details | Tetyana Samolenko (URS) | 3:58.56 CR | Hildegard Körner (GDR) | 3:58.67 | Doina Melinte (ROU) | 3:59.27 |
| 3000 m details | Tetyana Samolenko (URS) | 8:38.73 | Maricica Puică (ROU) | 8:39.45 | Ulrike Bruns (GDR) | 8:40.30 |
| 10,000 m details | Ingrid Kristiansen (NOR) | 31:05.85 | Yelena Zhupiyeva (URS) | 31:09.40 | Kathrin Ullrich (GDR) | 31:11.34 |
| Marathon details | Rosa Mota (POR) | 2:25:17 CR | Zoya Ivanova (URS) | 2:32:38 | Jocelyne Villeton (FRA) | 2:32:53 |
| 100 m hurdles details | Ginka Zagorcheva (BUL) | 12.34 CR | Gloria Uibel (GDR) | 12.44 | Cornelia Oschkenat (GDR) | 12.46 |
| 400 m hurdles details | Sabine Busch (GDR) | 53.62 CR | Debbie Flintoff (AUS) | 54.19 | Cornelia Ullrich (GDR) | 54.31 |
| 10 km walk details | Irina Strakhova (URS) | 44:12 CR | Kerry Saxby (AUS) | 44:23 | Yan Hong (CHN) | 44:42 |
| 4 × 100 m relay details | United States (USA) Alice Brown Diane Williams Florence Griffith Pam Marshall | 41.58 CR | East Germany (GDR) Silke Gladisch Cornelia Oschkenat Kerstin Behrendt Marlies Göhr | 41.95 | Soviet Union (URS) Irina Slyusar Natalya Pomoschchnikova Natalya German Olga Antonova | 42.33 |
| 4 × 400 m relay details | East Germany (GDR) Dagmar Neubauer Kirsten Emmelmann Petra Muller Sabine Busch Cornelia Ullrich* | 3:18.63 CR | Soviet Union (URS) Aelita Yurchenko Olga Nazarova Mariya Pinigina Olga Bryzgina | 3:19.50 | United States (USA) Diane Dixon Denean Howard Valerie Brisco Lillie Leatherwood | 3:21.04 |
| WR world record | AR area record | CR championship record | GR games record | NR national record | OR Olympic record | PB personal best | SB season best | WL world leading (in a given season) |||||| |
Note: * Indicates athletes who ran in preliminary rounds.

### Field

1983 | 1987 | 1991 | 1993 | 1995
| Games | Gold | Gold | Silver | Silver | Bronze | Bronze |
| High jump details | Stefka Kostadinova (BUL) | 2.09 WR | Tamara Bykova (URS) | 2.04 | Susanne Beyer (GDR) | 1.99 |
| Long jump details | Jackie Joyner-Kersee (USA) | 7.36 CR | Yelena Belevskaya (URS) | 7.14 | Heike Drechsler (GDR) | 7.13 |
| Shot put details | Natalya Lisovskaya (URS) | 21.24 CR | Kathrin Neimke (GDR) | 21.21 | Ines Müller (GDR) | 20.76 |
| Discus throw details | Martina Hellmann (GDR) | 71.62 CR | Diana Gansky (GDR) | 70.12 | Tsvetanka Khristova (BUL) | 68.82 |
| Javelin throw details | Fatima Whitbread (GBR) | 76.64 CR | Petra Felke (GDR) | 71.76 | Beate Peters (FRG) | 68.82 |
| Heptathlon details | Jackie Joyner-Kersee (USA) | 7128 CR | Larisa Nikitina (URS) | 6564 | Jane Frederick (USA) | 6502 |
| WR world record | AR area record | CR championship record | GR games record | NR national record | OR Olympic record | PB personal best | SB season best | WL world leading (in a given season) |||||| |

## Exhibition events

Two exhibition para-athletics events appeared at the competition, but results did not go towards the overall medal count. The two wheelchair races were the first time disability events had appeared at the championships, and were the first exhibition event of any kind to feature at the World Championships in Athletics. This began a tradition of such events which continued until 2011. Wheelchair exhibition events were contested until that year, bar 1999 and 2009.
| Games | Gold | Gold | Silver | Silver | Bronze | Bronze |
| Men's 1500 m wheelchair | Mustapha Badid (FRA) | 3:54.32 | Lars Lofström (SWE) | 3:54.90 | Franz Nietlispach (SUI) | 3:55.27 |
| Women's 800 m wheelchair | Diane Rakiecki (CAN) | 2:32.52 | Connie Hansen (DEN) | 2:37.07 | Ingrid Lauridsen (DEN) | 2:39.95 |

## Medal table

* Host nation (Italy)
| Rank | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
| 1 | East Germany (GDR) | 10 | 11 | 10 | 31 |
| 2 | United States (USA) | 10 | 4 | 6 | 20 |
| 3 | Soviet Union (URS) | 7 | 12 | 6 | 25 |
| 4 | Bulgaria (BUL) | 3 | 0 | 1 | 4 |
| 5 | Kenya (KEN) | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| 6 | Italy (ITA)* | 2 | 2 | 1 | 5 |
| 7 | Great Britain (GBR) | 1 | 3 | 4 | 8 |
| 8 | Portugal (POR) | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| 9 | Finland (FIN) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 9 | Morocco (MAR) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 9 | Norway (NOR) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 9 | Somalia (SOM) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 9 | Sweden (SWE) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 9 | Switzerland (SUI) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 15 | France (FRA) | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| 16 | Australia (AUS) | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| 17 | Jamaica (JAM) | 0 | 1 | 3 | 4 |
| 18 | West Germany (FRG) | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| 19 | Czechoslovakia (TCH) | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 19 | Romania (ROU) | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 19 | Spain (ESP) | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 22 | Djibouti (DJI) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 22 | Nigeria (NGR) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 24 | Cuba (CUB) | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| 25 | Belgium (BEL) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 25 | Brazil (BRA) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 25 | China (CHN) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Totals (27 entries) | Totals (27 entries) | 43 | 44 | 42 | 129 |