Career
Itkina ran for Spartak Minsk and the Dynamo Club in Minsk, Belarus.She held 17 Russian track and field titles. In 1961, she tied the indoor 60 meter sprint world record of 7.3 seconds. Her mark of 11.4 seconds in the 100-meter sprint, achieved in 1960, is among the best-ever. In July 1956, Itkina set a 220-yard event world record of 23.6 seconds. She set a 400-meter world record of 53.9 seconds in 1955. In 1957, she lowered the world record to 53.6 seconds. She tied or broke her mark seven times. She lowered the record to 53.0 seconds on August 29, 1964. She set a world record at 440 yards, at 53.7 seconds, in September 1959, beating the record of Betty Cuthbert of Australia. In 1963, Itkina ran the third leg of the Soviet women’s 800-meter relay team that set a world record of 1.34.7. She also won the 200-meter sprint at the 1957 World University Games in Paris, in 24.6 seconds. Itkina was a four-time European Champion. In 1954 at Bern, she won gold medals in the 200-meter (24.3) and 4 x 100-meter relay. In 1958 in Stockholm, she won the 400-meter event in a record 53.7 seconds, and won the bronze medal in the 200 meter race (24.3; as Barbara Janiszewska won the gold medal). In 1962 in Belgrade she won the 400-meter event (53.4) ahead of Joy Grieveson of Great Britain and Tilly van der Made of the Netherlands. In 1965, she won another 400-meter gold medal.In three Olympics, she came in fourth in four events, including a 4x100 relay at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, and the 100-meter (.06 seconds behind Giuseppina Leone) and 200-meter (.03 seconds behind Dorothy Hyman) sprints and 4x100 relay at the 1960 Rome Olympics, and fifth in the 400-meter relay in 1964 in Tokyo (.2 seconds behind Judy Amoore). She was also eliminated in the semi-finals of the 200-meter sprint at the 1956 Olympics, coming in .01 seconds behind qualifier Norma Croker.