Vera Nikolić

For the Croatian painter and baroness, see Vera Nikolić Podrinska.

Vera Nikolić (Serbian Cyrillic: Вера Николић; 23 September 1948 – 28 June 2021) was a Serbian middle-distance runner, who competed at the 1968 and 1972 Olympics, and later became a coach.^[2]

Vera Nikolić

Nikolić in 1972
Personal information
Native name	Вера Николић
Born	23 September 1948 (1948-09-23) Grabovica, PR Serbia, FPR Yugoslavia
Died	28 June 2021 (2021-06-29) (aged 72)[1] Belgrade, Serbia
Height	1.68 m (5 ft 6 in)
Weight	57 kg (126 lb)
Sport
Sport	Athletics
Event(s)	800 m, 1500 m
Club	Morava Ćuprija Dinamo Zagreb
Coached by	Leo Lang
Achievements and titles
Personal best(s)	800 m – 1:59.62 (1972) 1500 m – 4:12.7 (1972)
Medal record Representing  Yugoslavia European Championships 1966 Budapest 800 m 1971 Helsinki 800 m 1969 Athens 800 m Mediterranean Games 1971 Izmir 800 m 1971 Izmir 1500 m

Biography

Nikolić began her career in 1964 when she became Yugoslav youth champion and later Balkan youth cross-country champion at the age of 16. In the summer of that year, she set two national youth records with 57.3 seconds over 400 meters and 2:14.4 minutes over 800 meters.

At the 1966 European Championships in Budapest, she won the gold medal in the 800 metres race. At 17 years and 346 days, Nikolić was the youngest European champion at the time, until she was replaced by the Spaniard Mari Cruz Díaz in 1986. Nikolić received a Golden Badge of Sport, award for the best athlete of Yugoslavia in 1966. In 1967, she set a junior world record of 1:25.2 minutes over the rarely run 600 metres distance.

She won the British WAAA Championships title in the 800 metres event on 20 July at the 1968 WAAA Championships, setting a world record of 2.00.5.^[3][4][5]

At the 1969 European Championships in Athens, she had to settle for third place. But at the 1971 European Championships in Helsinki, she became European champion again. In the same year, she won both the 800 and 1500 metres at the Mediterranean Games.

As one of the favourites at the 1968 Olympic Games, she could not cope with the pressure of expectations and ended the race early.^[6] she gave up her semifinal – after leading it for 300 metres she suddenly stepped off the track, walked back to the start, sat down and took off her shoes.^[7]

She changed coaches and moved to Zagreb, where she competed for Dinamo Zagreb. Her world record was beaten on 11 July 1971 by the German Hildegard Falck. Her successes were initially based on intensive interval training under coach Aleksandar Petrović. It was only in Zagreb, under the direction of coach Leo Lang, that she began to lay a broader foundation in endurance. At the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, Vera Nikolić took fifth place in the 800 metres with a time of 1:59.98 minutes.^[8]