• May 3 down the years

Hendry claims record seventh World title

Stephen Hendry beat Mark Williams for his seventh world title © Getty Images

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1999
Stephen Hendry won his seventh and last world title - a modern-day record. In the two seasons before this, marriage and fatherhood had dimmed his single-minded drive to win. He was eliminated 9-0 in the first round of a ranking tournament and lost to players he had never lost to before. However, a return to the practice-table heralded immediate results. He won the Scottish Open and the Masters and was at his ironclad best in this final. The talented Mark Williams twice closed to within two frames, but Hendry led 10-6 overnight and 15-9 before the last session. He won the next two frames too, to lead 17-9, and although Williams put two coats of gloss on the final score, he lost 18-11. After such a display, it was hard to imagine Hendry never winning the title again. Williams was back in the final on May 1 the following year.

2004
Ronnie O'Sullivan continued his increasing domination of the game as he won the world title for the second time. In the final, he met 200-1 outsider Graeme Dott, who had contemplated giving up the game earlier in the year. Here he took a shock 5-0 lead, then survived a Rocket comeback to lead 6-4 and 7-6. But that was as good as it got. Dott won only one more frame, while O'Sullivan took five in a row, then the last seven to take the title 18-8. This was a launchpad for the underdog though. Dott made it back to the final on May 2 two years later and won.

1981
Nélson Piquet won the San Marino Grand Prix on the way to becoming world champion for the first time. Carlos Reutemann finished third, which made all the difference at the end of the season: he was runner-up, only one point behind Piquet, and never won the title.

Nigel Mansell won the same Grand Prix in 1987, ahead of Ayrton Senna, who started from pole. But even though Piquet missed the race and the next after crashing in practice, he won the title again, with Mansell second.

Two of Britain's most famous sprinters were born today and competed at the same Olympics.

1952
Allan Wells was born in Edinburgh. Unsuccessful long jumper turned sprinter of international class. Suddenly Wells was good enough to win medals at the 1978 Commonwealth Games. Without using starting blocks, he took silver in the 100 metres behind Don Quarrie, and gold in the 200. Four years later, he did the double, though he had to share the 200 (to his undisguised annoyance) with England's Mike McFarlane. In the 100, he finished ahead of Ben Johnson. Wells proudest achievement came in winning the 100 metres at the 1980 Olympics - making him the first British runner to win the event since Harold Abrahams on July 7 1924. The Americans boycotted the Games, and the Scotsman's 10.25 seconds was the slowest winning time in 20 years. Wells ran faster in the 200, coming within 0.02 of doing the double but he was beaten on the line by world record holder Pietro Mennea. Wells never ran a really fast 100, his best time being a relatively pedestrian 10.11. Arguably, he was lucky to find himself in a depleted Olympic Final.

Kathy Cook didn't have that luxury. Born Kathy Smallwood in Winchester in 1960, she was infinitely more talented than Wells but competed in an era dominated by suspected drug-users. Tall and long-legged, Smallwood was particularly superb at the 200 metres, a teenage star - but dodgy opponents cost her a string of gold medals. At the 1982 and 1986 Commonwealth Games, she finished second to Merlene Ottey, who had a steroid ban overturned years later, and Angella Taylor Issajenko, who admitted taking drugs since 1979. At the 1982 Europeans, Cook finished second to Bärbel Wöckel, who was implicated for similar offences in files discovered after the reunification of Germany. Cook had to settle for two other European silvers in the sprint relay, behind the USSR and East Germany. At the 1980 Olympics, the British girls finished third, again behind the nefarious two. Four years later, Cook was denied a medal in the 200 by Ottey and Florence Griffith Joyner and won bronze in the 400. Her time of 49.43 second for the longer race is still the British record despite the success of Christine Ohuruogu. Cook's 22.10 for 200 metres, also from those 1984 Games, is a British best - and her 11.10 for the 100 wasn't broken until 2008. Her only gold medals came in the relay, taking three in a row at the Commonwealth Games. She was cheated out of many others.

2001
In Bradford Bulls' 56-24 win over Warrington Wolves, Henry Paul set a new world record in rugby league by landing his 35th successful goal kick in a row. The sequence began in that year's Challenge Cup semi-final and included the final, which the Bulls lost to a rampant St Helens.

1956
The first World Championships in judo were held in Tokyo. There were no weight divisions, just a single open category. Rather suitably Shokichi Natsui of Japan emerged victorious.

1942
Věra Čáslavská was born in Prague and became one of the most successful gymnasts of all time as well as an international symbol. Compared with today's wafer-thin waifs, she appears almost matronly on film, with thick thighs and a blonde bun. There are no somersaults on the balance beam and no dizzy tumbling on the floor. But she was the very best of her time, all-round Olympic champion in 1964 and 1968 and winner of seven individual Olympic gold medals - a record for the sport. Three of her four Olympic silvers were in the team event, where Czechoslovakia could not hope to compete with the USSR. She also won four golds at various World Championships, plus all five events at two separate European Championships. In 1968, Čáslavská signed a manifesto protesting against Moscow's influence in her country. Two months before the Olympics that year, Soviet tanks rolled into Prague. Čáslavská's protests during the Games led to ostracism when she returned home. In Mexico after the Olympics, she married runner Josef Odložil, who won silver in the 1500 metres behind the great Peter Snell (born December 17 1938) at the 1964 Games. In 1993, the year after their divorce, Odložil was shot dead by their son.

1933
Dutch swimming sensation Wily den Ouden (born January 1 1918) was 15 when she set her first world record today - the first of four in a row at the 100 metres freestyle.

A day for wearing anoraks at rugby union matches.

2008
Japan's 18 tries against the Arabian Gulf were shared by 13 different players, which equalled a world record that still stands. A team sprinkled with typically Japanese names like Robins, Arlidge, and Webb converted 12 of those tries en-route to winning 114-6. Hirotoki Onozawa scored three of them, something he did in four other internationals.

1980
South Africa's kicking fly-half Naas Botha landed three drop goals against South America, who were Argentina in everything but name and shirt. The Springboks did not have it easy though: their captain Morné du Plessis scored the only try of an 18-9 win.

1987
Rugby union wing Gary Hein scored three tries on his debut for the USA, against the might of Tunisia. He did not score any in his remaining 24 international matches but managed two for Oxford in the Varsity Match against Cambridge in 1989.

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