• July 28 down the years

A rash of swimming world records

There was glory for Gemma Spofforth © Getty Images

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2009
The World Championships produced a rash of world records for swimmers in polyurethane bodysuits. Three were set today: two in different events by the same man, the other by Britain's Gemma Spofforth. She swam the 100 metres backstroke in 58.12 seconds to break the 58.48 set by Russia's Anastasia Zueva in the semi-final the day before. Spofforth beat Zueva by only 0.06 in the final.

Paul Biedermann of Germany emerged from a tough workload with gold medals in the 200 and 400 freestyle, breaking world records set by two of the modern giants. In the 200 final, he swam exactly 1 minute 42 seconds to thrash Michael Phelps, of all people, finishing 1.22 seconds ahead, breaking his world record, and stopping Phelps winning the event for the third time in a row. In the 400, Biedermann finished ahead of Tunisia's Oussama Mellouli, who won silver for the second time in a row. The winning time of 3 minutes 40.07 broke Ian Thorpe's seven-year-old world best by a hundredth of a second.

1980
Scotland's Allan Wells had his chance to do the sprint double at the Olympic Games. Having won a slow 100 metres three days before, he ran a world-class time in the 200 today. Out in lane seven, he stormed the bend to open up a clear lead over defending champion Don Quarrie of Jamaica and Italian world record holder Pietro Mennea, who was in the outside lane next to Wells. Slim and slight alongside the bullish Wells, Mennea had finished third in 1972 and fourth in 1976. Now he took his last chance, his smooth style bringing him closer as Wells was bound by his muscles. In the last three yards, Mennea edged past to win by 0.02 of a second. Quarrie did well to finish third.

The same day in the same stadium featured the first 28-foot long jump. Bob Beamon had bypassed 28 on his way from 27 to 29 with his groundbreaking leap in 1968 (18 October). That was at high altitude. Today the powerful young East German Lutz Dombrowski jumped 8.54 to set a sea-level best.

Meanwhile Marita Koch won the 400 metres with pharmaceutical assistance, running an Olympic record of 48.88 to finish well ahead of the similarly scary Jarmila Kratochvílová.

1936
Britain retained the Davis Cup for the last time. In those days, not only did the holders play only one tie, they held that tie at home. In the Challenge Round against Australia at Wimbledon, 'Bunny' Austin gave Britain the lead by beating the former champion there, a fading Jack Crawford. Austin lost the first set but won the next three, including the last two 6-1. Then Fred Perry won a tight third set to go 2-1 up on the way to beating Adrian Quist. With a 2-0 lead after the first day, Britain seemed to have locked the trophy cabinet for another year. But Quist was a top doubles player. The previous year, he and Crawford won the Wimbledon title. Now they won a tight match against the new champions Pat Hughes and Raymond Tuckey, winning the last two sets 7-5 10-8. Then Quist excelled himself by beating Austin in the fourth four-setter of the tie, which left Perry to face Crawford in the deciding singles. Perry had taken the Wimbledon title from Crawford in 1933 and kept it ever since. He was in his prime, Crawford just past his, and even though there was pressure in having to win in front of a home crowd to keep the Cup, Perry thrived on that. This was his eighth and last singles match in a Challenge Rounds. He won them all, his speed blitzing Crawford in three easy sets. When he turned pro, Britain faced a chilly Challenge Round the following year (27 July).

2002
English hammer thrower Mick Jones was 39 by the time he won gold at the Commonwealth Games. He achieved the only 70-metre throw of a weak competition. These were his fourth Games and he'd won silver four years earlier. Today's bronze medallist, Paul Head of England, was 37.

1999
The European Swimming Championships ended on a high note for Britain when Sue Rolph won the 100 meters freestyle. In winning her first medal of any colour at the Championships, she became the first British woman to win a European long-course title since Anita Lonsbrough in the 200 metres breaststroke 37 years earlier. Fourth at the turn, Rolph used her strength to overhaul future Olympic champion Inge de Bruijn in the last two strokes, with defending champion Sandra Völker third. Rolph's time of 55.03 broke her own British record.

In the men's 100 freestyle on the same day, Holland's Pieter van den Hoogenband beat Aleksandr Popov, who'd won the event the last four times and won it again in 2000. Van den Hoogenband won a record-equalling six gold medals at these Championships, which would have seven if Holland hadn't been disqualified from one of the relays (through no fault of his).

The other British winners at the Championships were Paul Palmer and Antonio Ali (who later called himself Tony Ally). In the 400 metres freestyle, Palmer allowed defending champion Emiliano Brembilla to take the lead before catching him near the end. Brembilla won the event the next three times it was held.

In the 3-metre springboard diving, Ali took advantage of Dimitri Sautin's back problems to finish 13.32 points ahead of Hungary's Imre Lengyel. Sautin, who finished fifth, had won the event the last two times it was held. He won it again the next two, then again in 2006 and 2008.

Steve Smith grabbed a medal © Getty Images

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1996
The first Olympic medal by a male high jumper representing Britain since Ireland's Con Leahy in London in 1908. Steve Smith cleared a modest 2.35 metres behind Poland's Artur Partyka, who reached 2.37, and home favourite Charles Austin, who made 2.39 to win gold with his last attempt.

On the track, one of China's controversial runners Wang Junxia won the first women's 5,000 metres ever run at the Games, nipping under 15 minutes to finish 30 metres clear of Pauline Konga, the first Kenyan woman to win an Olympic medal. One of the big favourites, Ireland's Sonia Sullivan, weakened by stomach problems, failed to finish. She won silver four years later (25 September) but never an Olympic gold.

Fatuma Roba of Ethiopia won the women's Marathon, so the top two from 1992 dropped down a place. Russian defending champion Valentina Yegorova finished exactly two minutes behind Roba, with Yuko Arimori of Japan third.

Balázs Kiss of Hungary won the hammer after a heart-in-mouth last throw by America's Lance Deal fell only 12 centimetres short.

1908
The first married couple to win Olympic gold medals. The sailing events at these Games took place at Ryde on the Isle of Wight. Two of Britain's winning team in the 7-metre class were 55-year-old helmsman Charles Rivet-Carnac and his second wife Frances. They certainly fulfilled the Olympic ideal of winning and taking part: their boat Heroine was the only one that entered!

1976
The steeplechaser who had to hurdle an extra obstacle to win his Olympic medal. Sweden's Anders Gärderud got it right in a major competition at last. Two years earlier, he'd finished second to Poland's Bronisław Malinowski at the European Championships. Today he overtook Malinowski to open up a five-yard lead at the final water jump. But as he came down the finishing straight, Gärderud was about to be overtaken by the unknown young Frank Baumgartl. At the last hurdle, a grimacing Gärderud looked beaten - and Baumgartl was showing typical East German, er, conditioning. Until he hit the hurdle and fell over. A relieved Gärderud broke his own world record, Malinowski won the silver, Baumgartl got up for bronze. Malinowski retained his European title in 1978 before winning Olympic gold in 1980. Baumgartl wasn't heard of again.

On the same day at the same Games, Yuri Sedykh won the hammer throw for the first time, with his own coach and defending champion Anatoly Bondarchuk taking the bronze. And French idol Guy Drut won the 110 metres hurdles by just 0.03 of a second from Cuba's Alejandro Casañas, who lost gold four years later by 0.01! Willie Davenport, who took the bronze here in 1976, had won the US Olympic trials in 1964 before injury eliminated him from the semi-finals of the Games. He won gold in 1968 and finished fourth in 1972.

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