✱
forgotten that there was a gold medal to be won. We’ll never know what would have happen if Decker had not collided with the diminutive Budd and stayed in the race but the almost ignored winner was Romania’s own golden girl Maricica Puica.
A
ENCHANTING RUNNER It is by no means a given that Decker would have seen off the Eastern European, who had posted the fastest time that year out of those competing at the Los Angeles Coliseum. There was something enchanting about watching Puica run, her long blonde locks flailing behind her and exertion etched on her face. She was no `robot` of the communist regime. Yet Puica was cast as a bit-part in the developing soap opera surrounding American idol Decker and the teenage Budd, the South African prodigy who had been co-opted on to the British team at indecent haste. With just over three laps to go, the pair collided and the American fell, sustaining an injured hip. Puica went on to win the race by over three seconds in 8 mins 35.96 secs but the story was elsewhere. Bizarre scheduling demanded that the 1,500m final took place the next day, which ruined Puica’s chance of doing the double. The energy expended in the 3,000m blunted her
46 n
www.runningfreemag.co.uk
A FORGOTTEN HERO
Adrian Hill looks back into the triumphs of 3000m Gold Medallist Maricica Puica
mid the shenanigans involving Mary Decker and Zola Budd in the 1984 Women’s Olympic 3,000 metres final it was almost
finish and she had to settle for Bronze. Born Maricica Luca in 1950, Puica first competed on the international stage one day before her 26th birthday in the heats of the 1976 Olympic 1,500m. She was eliminated but made her first meaningful impression the next year, finishing second in the European Cup in Helsinki. The rate of progression continued in 1978 when she finished third in the World Cross Country Championship in Glasgow. The winner by a distance that day was the late Grete Waitz, but Puica showed resilience and her efforts helped Romania claim the team gold medal. Puica would go on to win two global titles for the country in 1982 and 1984.
“Puica was cast as a bit-part in the developing soap opera surrounding American idol Decker and the teenage Budd, the South African prodigy”
DECKER RIVALRY The inclusion of the 3,000m at some of the major championships in the late 1970s came just at the right time. Puica could use her finishing `kick` to devastating purpose in the longer race against women who would ideally have competed over further. Fourth in the 1978 European 3,000 metres final was an improvement on her 11th in the `metric mile` at those championships in Prague, which indicated where she
would prosper most later in her career. Due to a refusal to allow women to compete beyond 1,500m, Puica was restricted to the shorter event in the 1980 Moscow Olympics, where she finished 7th in a respectable time of 4:01.30. The rivalry with Decker began
shortly after Puica’s first World Cross Country victory in Rome as the pair of them dominated the middle-distance scene in 1982. Decker had obliterated
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64