Ilona Bruzsenyák

Ilona Bruzsenyák (born 14 September 1950) is a Hungarian former track and field athlete who competed in the women's pentathlon, long jump and 100 metres hurdles. She was the gold medallist in the long jump at the 1974 European Athletics Championships. Bruzsenyák represented her nation at the Summer Olympics in 1972 and 1976, competing in both long jump and pentathlon. She was a ten-time national champion at the Hungarian Athletics Championships.

Ilona Bruzsenyák
Medal record
Women's athletics
Representing  Hungary
European Championships
1974 RomeLong jump
The native form of this personal name is Bruzsenyák Ilona. This article uses Western name order when mentioning individuals.

Career

Born in Pócsmegyer in Hungary's Pest County, she joined the Debreceni Egyetem athletics club in Debrecen before moving to Budapest and training with Újpesti TE.[1] Her first national title came at the Hungarian Athletics Championships in 1971, where she won the women's pentathlon in a meet record of 4897 points, succeeding Margit Papp to the crown.[2] An international debut followed at the 1971 European Athletics Championships. Papp was chosen as the representative in the pentathlon so Bruzsenyák competed as part of the 4 × 100 metres relay team and she led off the team of Margit Nemesházi, Györgyi Balogh and Katalin Papp to take fifth place.[3]

She was a double national champion in 1972, winning in both pentathlon and 100 metres hurdles.[2] She was chosen to compete for Hungary at the 1972 Summer Olympics and finished tenth in the long jump and eighth in the pentathlon (outperforming Papp in latter).[1] She repeated her national wins in 1973 and made her first outing at a major international indoors, taking fifth in the 60 metres hurdles at the 1973 European Athletics Indoor Championships.[2][4] She also topped the podium at the pentathlon semi-final of the European Combined Events Cup.[5]

The peak of her career came in the 1974 season. She started with an indoor national double in the 60 m hurdles and 60 metres sprint.[6] She placed sixth at the 1974 European Athletics Indoor Championships in the hurdles.[4] Outdoors she proved herself as Hungary's most versatile athlete with wins in the long jump, 100 m hurdles and pentathlon. Her winning mark of 6.63 m (21 ft 9 in) in the long jump was a personal best for the athlete and a Hungarian championship record.[2] She was selected for both long jump at the pentathlon at the 1974 European Athletics Championships. Her first final was the long jump and she produced a lifetime best performance of 6.65 m (21 ft 9 3⁄4 in) to break the Hungarian national record and take the gold medal ahead of Eva Šuranová of Czechoslovakia. Despite this additional efforts, she still managed to place sixth in the pentathlon event and was the only athlete in the top seven not to come from either East Germany or the Soviet Union.[7] For her achievements she was chosen as the Hungarian Sportswoman of the Year.[8]

Bruzsenyák did not compete in major international competition in 1975, but took national indoor titles in the hurdles and long jump that year.[6] The 1976 season was her last at a high level. She was the sprint hurdles champion indoors and outdoors.[2] Alongside the national champions Ildikó Erdélyi and Margit Papp, she was chosen again for the long jump and pentathlon at the Olympics. At the 1976 Montreal Games her decline on the international scene was evident as she failed to progress beyond the long jump qualifiers and dropped to sixteenth in the pentathlon rankings.[1] The following year she won the last national title of her career, the indoor 60 m hurdles.[6]

Bruzsenyák married Lajos Gresa, a fellow Hungarian international athlete.[1]

National titles

International competitions
YearCompetitionVenuePositionEventNotes
1971 European Championships Helsinki, Finland 5th 4 × 100 m relay 44.78
1972 Olympic Games Munich, Germany 10th Long jump 6.39 m
8th Pentathlon 4419 pts
1973 European Indoor Championships Rotterdam, Netherlands 5th 60 m hurdles 8.32
European Combined Events Cup (semis) Innsbruck, Austria 1st Pentathlon 4617 pts
1974 European Indoor Championships Gothenburg, Sweden 6th 60 m hurdles 8.39
European Championships Rome, Italy 1st Long jump 6.65 m
6th Pentathlon 4407 pts
1976 Olympic Games Montreal, Canada 22nd (q) Long jump 6.02 m
16th Pentathlon 4193 pts

Personal bests

See also

References
  1. Ilona Bruzsenyak Archived 2015-10-07 at the Wayback Machine. Sports Reference. Retrieved on 2015-12-13.
  2. Hungarian Championships. GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 2015-12-13.
  3. European Athletics Championships Zürich 2014 - STATISTICS HANDBOOK. European Athletics Association, pp. 412-420. Retrieved on 2015-12-13.
  4. Ilona Bruzsenyak. Track and Field Brinkster. Retrieved on 2015-12-13.
  5. European Combined Events Cup. GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 2015-12-13.
  6. Hungarian Indoor Championships. GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 2015-12-13.
  7. European Championships (Women). GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 2015-12-13.
  8. Hungarian Sportspeople of the Year Archived 2012-03-26 at the Wayback Machine. msusz.data-park. Retrieved on 2015-12-13.
Awards
Preceded by
Ildikó Tordasi		 Hungarian Sportswoman of the Year
1974		 Succeeded by
Mariann Ambrus
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