Ulrike Bruns

She was third in 10,000 metres run at the 1986 European Championships. She took the same place at 1987 World Championships. Bruns also won 800 m at the 1978 European Athletics Indoor Championships.

She competed for East Germany in the 1976 Summer Olympics held in Montreal, Quebec, Canada in the 1500 metres where she won the bronze medal.

She received first public attention while still competing under her maiden name of Klapezynski when performing at the 1976 Montreal Olympics. That year, she set her personal bests of 1:57.06min for the 800 m and 3:59.9min for the 1500 m, but opted to confine only to the 1500 m in Montreal eventually winning the bronze medal behind the winner, Tatyana Kazankina (USSR). Klapezynski again finished behind Kazankina when winning 1500 m silver at the inaugural World Cup in Düsseldorf next year. She then won a title by her own, finishing first over 800 m at the 1978 European Indoor Championships in Milan. Later that year, Bruns set the world record at 1000 m on 18 August at Berlin, clocking 2:31.95min, but lost that record only two days later. She was considerably disappointed after that to finish 7th at both 800 m and 1500 m at the European Championships in Prague. It seemed that her career stagnated after 1500 m fifth place finishes at the 1980 Moscow Olympics and 1982 European Championships in Athens, but Bruns turned to longer distances in the early 1980s, and although she didn't compete at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, due to the Eastern Bloc boycott, she recorded her lifetime best at 3000 m that year, clocking 8:36.38min in July.

Ulrike Bruns (née Klapezynski, born 17 November 1953) is a retired East German athlete who competed mainly in the 1500 metres and 3000 metres.

Klapezynski was born in 1953 in Cottbus. She married her trainer, Jürgen Bruns (1942–2018), in 1979 and they had two children. After the German reunification, they operated a sports store in Potsdam.