Ellen Kiessling

Ellen Buchleitner (née Kiessling, born 17 February 1968) is a German former track and field athlete who was a middle-distance specialist. Representing East Germany, she won a silver medal in the 800 metres at the 1989 European Indoor Championships and a bronze medal in the 800 m at the 1989 World Indoor Championships, before going on to win a silver medal in the 1500 metres at the 1990 European Championships. She won three East German national titles.

Representing Germany, she finished fifth in the 1500 m final at the 1991 World Championships and competed at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. An eight-time unified Germany national champion, her winning indoor 1500 m time from 1991 remains the championship record. Her personal bests include 1:59.41 for the 800 metres, 4:04.44 for the 1500 metres and 8:46.99 for 3000 metres. She began competing as Ellen Buchleitner after marrying Austrian runner Michael Buchleitner in 1994.

Career Born in Freital, Bezirk Dresden, she joined Dresdner SC and started working with the club's athletics coach Klaus Müller. Her first international medal for East Germany came on home soil in Cottbus, where she took the 800 metres bronze medal at the 1985 European Athletics Junior Championships. The 1986 World Junior Championships in Athletics followed and at that meet she was sixth in the 800 m, but helped the East German 4 × 400 metres relay team to a bronze medal by running in the heats stage. She began to run longer distances and won the Willi Sänger Memorial 5K run in 1988.

Kiessling took her first national title at the East German Athletics Championships in 1989. The following month she recorded a lifetime indoor best of 1:59.68 minutes at the 1989 IAAF World Indoor Championships – this brought her the bronze medal as the top three all finished within half a second, beaten only by her compatriot Christine Wachtel and Soviet runner Tatyana Grebenchuk. In the outdoor season she set three further lifetime bests: 1:59.41 minutes for the 800 m, 4:04.44 minutes for the 1500 m and 8:46.99 minutes for the 3000 metres. Her 1500 m best, recorded in East Berlin, ranked her seventh in the world on time that season. She was the fourth-place finisher at the European Cup (1500 m) and 1989 IAAF World Cup (3000 m).

Kiessling proved to be the final East German 1500 m champion in 1990, winning both indoors and out.

After the unification of Germany, she began competing for the new German team in 1991. She became the country's first post-unification 1500 m champion with a win at the German Indoor Athletics Championships. Her winning time of 4:05.50 minutes remains (as of 2015) a championship record. She repeated her indoor and outdoor national title double in the 1992 season and went on to represent Germany at the 1992 Summer Olympics. However, at the Olympics in Barcelona she failed to finish in the first round and was eliminated. This was her only Olympic appearance and her last major outing at world level.

She did not compete in major championships after 1994, but claimed her eighth German title in the 1500 m in 1995 (bringing her national title total to eleven). 800 metres – 1:59.41 minutes (1989) 1500 metres – 4:04.44 minutes (1989) Mile run – 4:26.66 minutes (1990) 3000 metres – 8:46.99 minutes (1989) 800 metres (indoor) – 1:59.68 minutes (1989) 1500 metres (indoor) – 4:06.50 minutes (1991)

National titles East German Athletics Championships 1500 metres: 1989, 1990 East German Indoor Athletics Championships 1500 metres: 1990 German Athletics Championships 1500 metres: 1991, 1992, 1994, 1995 3×800 m relay: 1994

International competitions