| 21/08/2003 - Seville 1999: JOHNSON'S CROWNING GLORY |
One of the greatest athletes of all time, Michael Johnson took his total of world titles to nine with a 400m / 4x400m double in Spain. Above all though, he added the final jewel to his crown by breaking the 400m world record. After Seville, Johnson simply had nothing left to prove. He’d done it all.
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| 18/08/2003 - Athens 1997 – A SPRINT QUEEN IS BORN |
The 6th World Championships in Athletics were marked by the emergence of a new star. Marion Jones swapped the basketball court for the athletics arena to win double gold in the 100m and 4x100m.
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| 12/08/2003 - Athens 1997 – THE TSAR LIVES! |
You couldn’t make it up… Apparently in the twilight of is career and shortly after an Achilles’ tendon operation, Sergey Bubka achieved what no other athlete has managed to this day - a sixth consecutive world gold medal. His reign stretched way back to Helsinki in 1983.
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| 08/08/2003 - Gothenburg 1995 – MORCELI MAKES IT THREE |
Algerian legend Noureddine Morceli made it a hat-trick of World Championship triumphs over 1,500m, a discipline he would dominate for a further two years until the silver medallist that day, a certain Hicham El Guerrouj, finally took over his mantle.
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| 06/08/2003 - Gothenburg 1995 – EDWARDS SOARS TO GLORY |
Jonathan Edwards made history at the 5th World Championships in Athletics by becoming the first man to leap beyond the mythical 18 metre mark in the triple jump.
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| 15/07/2003 - Stuttgart 1993 – JACKSON EXACTS HIS REVENGE |
Touted as a future champion from day one, the Welsh hurdler had to be patient for several years, and overcome a string of disappointments before confirming his immense talent. It was the 3rd IAAF World Championships in Athletics that marked his arrival, with a world record into the bargain…
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| 08/07/2003 - Tokyo 1991 – FOSTER: A TREBLE, A DELIVERANCE |
Starved of the Olympic title he had chased throughout his long and successful career, Greg Foster made the World Championships his happy hunting ground. He would go down in athletics’ history at the ripe old age of 33 when he clinched a world title treble.
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| 27/06/2003 - Tokyo 1991 - POWELL: ONE HUGE LEAP FOR MANKIND |
In the greatest long jump competition ever staged, Mike Powell wrote his name in the record books with a mammoth leap of 8.95m, breaking Bob Beamon’s legendary world best which had stood for 23 years.
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| 17/06/2003 - Tokyo 1991 - PÉREC THE "GAZELLE" LEAPS TO FAME |
Marie-José Pérec leapt from relative obscurity to instantaneous international stardom at the 1991 World Championships in Athletics in Tokyo. Her gold medal-winning run in the 400m marked the beginning of a five-year reign over the event, during which the French ‘gazelle’ picked up consecutive Olympic golds.
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| 16/06/2003 - Tokyo 1991 - ALL RISE FOR KING CARL |
Carl Lewis may not have repeated his triple gold medal triumphs of Helsinki and Rome at the Tokyo World Championships of 1991, but at the ripe old age of 30 still managed to bring home a gold medal and world record in the greatest 100m race ever.
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| 26/05/2003 - PARIS AND ATHLETICS: A LONGSTANDING LOVE AFFAIR |
Paris may not have previously played host to the World Championships in Athletics, but the City of Light has a long and distinguished tradition in track and field. Meetings of a kind were first held in the capital towards the end of the 19th century - but they were a far cry from this summer.
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| 13/05/2003 - Rome 1987: JJK – THE FIRST LADY OF ATHLETICS |
The second World Championships in Athletics are remembered for Jackie Joyner-Kersee’s double gold medal in the heptathlon and long jump, a breathtaking performance she matched the following year at the Seoul Olympics. Ever since, “JJK” has become known as the “First Lady of Athletics”, or to some, “Super Woman”.
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| 26/04/2003 - Rome 1987 - KOSTADINOVA: LONG HIGH JUMP FAME |
The WC in Athletics of 1987 are remembered for the first of Ben Johnson’s now infamous showdowns with Carl Lewis. But connoisseurs of field athletics will remember another altogether longer-lasting achievement; Stefka Kostadinova’s life-changing leap of 2.09 metres...
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| 11/04/2003 - Rome 1987 - QUENEHERVE A WHISKER AWAY |
On 3 September 1987, French athletics discovered a new hero. A virtual unknown named Gilles Quénéhervé burst from the pack in the men’s 200m. The young hopeful was only just caught on the line by the great Calvin Smith but still walked away with an unexpected silver medal.
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| 04/04/2003 - Rome 1987 - ALL COMMANDING EDWIN MOSES |
The final of the 400m hurdles at the 1987 World Championships had all the ingredients of a classic – the aging champion, the old rival and the hungry pretender battling it out in one last head-to-head. A packed Stadio Olimpico in Rome was the backdrop as Edwin Moses wrote the final and most glorious chapter in a golden career.
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