An effusive appreciation of the great French pole vaulter Renaud Lavillenie by the equally successful and prodigious Sergey Bubka, whose world records Renaud succeeded – his 6.16m indoor record was actually achieved in Sergey’s home town of Ukraine which is certainly an emphatic way of making your point to your predecessor! Click image for video […]
Liz’s determined front running triumph in the difficult humid conditions of the Tokyo 1991 World Champs epitomized her no nonsense style. This had brought her multi-medal success on the track and at cross country before she later took to the roads winning the World 1/2 Marathon Champs and the 1996 London Marathon. Click image for […]
The never to be forgotten night at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games when thousands of sparkling flashbulbs tracked Cathy Freeman’s every lithesome stride, with her seemingly detached in her one piece kit as if in a trance, but focused in that moment of immense national expectation to deliver the gold – as only great champions […]
With her 200m victory at the Doha 2019 World Championships Dina Asher Smith won GBR’s first ever women’s global sprint title setting a new national record of 21.88 secs This followed her 10.83 secs 100m Silver medal and later she won another Silver in the 4 x 100m mining further riches from the Qatari sheikdom. […]
The Moroccan middle distance star was favourite to win the 1500m in 1996 and 2000 yet failed to do so but then won Athens in 2004 with an incredible sub 1′ 47″ last 800m. He then went on to win the 5000m to complete his incredible career as a double Olympic champion. Click image for […]
The Paris 1924 Olympics saw both Harold Abrahams and Eric Liddell triumph unexpectedly in the 100m and 400m events to later be immortalised in the film “Chariots of Fire”. Abrahams went on to become an institution within British Athletics as an administrator but the more self effacing Liddell died as a missionary in a Japanese […]
Peter Snell of New Zealand unexpectedly won the Rome 1960 800m and made it a second 800m gold in Tokyo as the firm favourite. He then doubled up in the 1500m with another emphatic victory with his rivals unable to match his typical strong finish. Click on image for video clip
Fatima Whitbread added to her 1986 European title and WR with her emphatic win at the 1987 Rome World Championships to defeat her great rival Petra Felke. Click image for video clip
Lasse Viren was a 4 time Olympic gold medalist and the last lap of the Montreal 1976 5000m is a masterclass of the relentless winding up of pace that had started several laps earlier to defeat the cream of his generations distance stars that challenged him but could not get past. Click image to view […]
Katarina Johnson-Thompson fulfilled her potential as a senior in Doha with a superb two days including 4 personal bests to beat arch rival Thiam and break the British record to extend the astonishing GBR record of women multi-eventers. Click image for video link
The greatest distance runner of all time, breaking 27 world records including the marathon, and winning Olympic and world titles from 1500m indoors to his most favoured 10,000m. His story is told here from his modest beginnings via running glory to his successful business career and deserved status as national icon. A true legend. Click […]
Christine Ohuruogo’s deceptive even paced running triumphed in Beijing in 2008 as it had done in Osaka the previous year and would do so again. Looking like a non-contender for 300m then reeling in opponents takes cool judgement a rare sprinting skill but nurtured to perfection by this modest champion. Click image for video clip