Xénia Siska

Xénia Siska (born 3 November 1957) is a Hungarian track and field athlete who specialised in the 100 metres hurdles. She is her country's best ever female sprint hurdler, holding from 1984 to 2020 the Hungarian record in the 100 m hurdles (12.76 seconds), and from 1985 to 2019 the 60 metres hurdles and 50 metres hurdles. She is also a co-holder of the 4 × 100 metres relay national record.

Her most significant achievement was a gold medal at the 1985 IAAF World Indoor Games in the 60 m hurdles event. She was a semi-finalist at the 1980 Moscow Olympics and the 1983 World Championships in Athletics. She was also twice a semi-finalist at the European Athletics Championships (1978 and 1986).

Career Born in Budapest, she won her first continental medal at the 1975 European Athletics Junior Championships at the age of seventeen, coming third in the 100 m hurdles. She joined Vasas SC, a major sports club in Budapest. The 1978 European Athletics Championships was the venue of her major international debut and she reached the semi-final stage, running a time of 13.36 seconds.

Siska defended her Hungarian 60 m hurdles title in 1979 – she would go undefeated in this competition until 1982. Outdoors, she was bested by pentathlete Margit Papp in the 100 m hurdles at the Hungarian Championships. Her Olympic debut followed, as she was chosen to compete for Hungary at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow. She did not reach the final, falling in the semi-final and failing to finish the race.

Her breakthrough in the 100 m hurdles event came in 1984: at the age of 26 she set a Hungarian record of 12.76 seconds in Budapest. This time placed her eleventh on the global rankings for the season. For her performances she was selected as the female Hungarian Athlete of the Year by the national federation. The greatest achievement of her career followed at the 1985 IAAF World Indoor Games. At the event (a precursor to the modern IAAF World Indoor Championships) she set a lifetime best of eight seconds flat for the 60 m hurdles in qualifying then went on to take the gold medal in the final. Outdoors she had a season's best of 12.99 seconds, enough to place in the top twenty for the year.

In 1986 she set the Hungarian Championships record at 12.92 seconds – a mark which remains undefeated. She came close to her personal best in Budapest in August, running 12.77 seconds to finish eleventh on the world season's rankings. The standard of competition was high at the 1986 European Athletics Championships; in spite of running 12.90 in the semi-finals, this was only enough for fifth in the race which was won by Yordanka Donkova, who broke the world record that year. After the competition, Siska topped the podium at the Athletissima meeting in Lausanne with a run of 12.86 seconds.

Her 1987 season was highlighted by a run of 12.77 seconds in Budapest, which placed her seventh in the world rankings for the season. This marked the last time that she featured near the top of the rankings. In 1988 she won an eighth Hungarian 100 m hurdles – the last national title of her career.

Personal bests 100 metres hurdles – 12.76 seconds (1984) 60 metres hurdles – 8.00 seconds (1985) 50 metres hurdles – 6.89 seconds (1981) 4×100 metres relay – 44.34 seconds (1982)

National titles 100 metres hurdles: 1978, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1986, 1988 100 metres: 1984 60 metres hurdles: 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982

International competitions