East Germany, led by Ramona Neubert and Sybille Thiele, were favorites in Sofia, while Bulgaria and the USSR provided strong competition despite key absences.
Women's pentathlon is a combined track and field event in which each woman competes in five separate events over one day (formerly two days). Pentathlon events: 60m hurdles, high jump, shot put, long jump and 800m.
Edgars Erinš set a new Latvian record while he improved 8312 points. Latvian previous record belonged to Janis Karlivans with 8271 points (Götzis 2007).