Ana Ambraziene
World Athletics is saddened to hear that former world 400m hurdles record-holder Ana Ambraziene died on Wednesday (12) at the age of 69.
Ambraziene was born in April 1955 in Vilnius when Lithuania was still part of the Soviet Union. She began to focus on the 400m hurdles in the mid-1970s, shortly after World Athletics (then the IAAF) started to recognise the discipline for women.
Her first major success came at the 1981 World University Games, where she won the 400m hurdles (55.52) and the 4x400m. One year later, she finished fourth at the 1982 European Championships.
Ambraziene chopped 0.26 off the world record with her 54.02 run in Moscow in June 1983, and it stood as the world record for a year and 11 days. In a close race at the 1983 World Championships in Helsinki, Ambraziene was beaten to the title by teammate Yekaterina Fesenko, who finished 0.01 ahead, 54.14 to 54.15.
The Soviet boycott of the 1984 Games meant that Ambraziene was unable to compete at the first Olympics where the women’s 400m hurdles would be contested. She made another global final when placing sixth at the 1987 World Championships in Rome.
Ambraziene continued competing into the early 1990s after Lithuania regained its independence from the Soviet Union. A graduate of the Lithuanian Institute of Physical Education, Ambraziene dedicated herself to education, working as a physical education teacher from 1999 to 2006.