• October 18 down the years

Jenson's on the Button

Glory for Jenson Button © Sutton Images

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2009
Jenson Button won the world title with a race to spare. Not bad for someone who didn't have a ride at the start of the year. When Honda left Formula 1 at the end of the 2008 season, no-one was in a hurry to employ Button, who'd won only one of his 155 World Championship races. But then Honda team boss Ross Brawn, the engineer behind Michael Schumacher's success at Ferrari, bought Honda out, renamed it Brawn, brought in Mercedes engines, and kept in Button. Stand by for fireworks. Button started on pole in the first two races, won them both, and six of the first seven. That gave him a points cushion which survived to the end of the season. And he needed it. Because he didn't win any of the last ten races. Luckily for Button, no single driver or team gained enough points to overtake him, and he won the title in Brazil today. Rubens Barrichello started on pole in his home Grand Prix, while Button was 14th on the grid and 9th after the first lap, but Sebastian Vettel finished fourth when he needed first or second, and Button's fifth place was more than enough. This and Hamilton's title the year before (November 2) made them the first consecutive British world champions since 1969. They joined up at McLaren for the 2010 season.

2009
Beth Tweddle became world champion for the second time. Britain's top gymnast had won the asymmetrical bars in 2006 (October 20). Now, at the O2 Arena in London, she surprised a few people with her floor exercises. After falling during qualifying for the asymmetricals, she struggled in qualifying for the floor - but got it spectacularly right in the final. Starting first gave her the chance to set a high standard the opposition couldn't follow. In her qualifying routine, she'd had a problem with her opening tumble, but she nailed it today - and her level of difficulty made all the difference. She scored 6.10 for that, plus 8.550 for her performance. Russia's Anna Myzdrikova had a difficulty score of 5.90 but finished fourth, while the minor medals were won by gymnasts with lower levels. Tweddle's gold added to a British silver three days earlier.

1968
A giant leap for mankind. Hopping into history. The man who jumped out of his skin. Headlines that were begging to be written. Because this was the biggest jaw-dropper in track and field history. The day Bob Beamon won the Olympic long jump. He went into the event as a dangerous dark horse. Technically raw, but long-limbed and very quick. The favourites were the joint world record holders: Beamon's US team-mate Ralph Boston, the 1960 Olympic champion - and the USSR's Igor Ter-Ovanesian, who'd equalled Boston's world best on this same Mexico City runway the previous year. And no-one was discounting the reigning champion, Lynn Davies from Wales with his excellent technique and great competitive spirit. But none of the above counted for anything when Beamon took his first jump. He must have reached six feet. And that was straight up in the air. When he landed, he bounced forward out of the pit - and it was already obvious he'd done something special. Quite how special began to dawn on people when the optical measuring device couldn't reach the point where Beamon landed; officials had to fetch an old-fashioned tape measure. The world record Boston shared with Ter-Ovanesian was 8.35 metres, 27 feet 5 inches. Beamon simply by-passed 28 feet altogether. He came to earth after 8.90 metres, 29 feet 2½ inches. He killed not just this Olympic competition, not just long jumping as an event for decades to come, but his own career. When he realised what he'd done, Beamon collapsed on his knees and had to be helped up. He never jumped further than 8.22 again. Meanwhile, with any chance of gold immediately gone, Davies couldn't motivate himself and finished 9th. Ter-Ovanesian managed only 8.12 for fourth place, while Boston completed his full set of medals with 8.16 for bronze.

The single greatest achievement in track and field history? Well, arguably. But beware. For a start, the event took place at altitude. Very high altitude. Mexico City is 2,240 metres (7,350 feet) above sea level, where the air is 23% thinner than at sea level. At these 1968 Olympics, it distorted the results in all the explosive events. World records were shattered in the men's and women's 100 metres (October 14) and 200 metres (October 16), the men's 400 metres (on Beamon Day) and triple jump (October 17), and both long jumps. Also, in a number of events the wind reading was rather conveniently two metres per second, the maximum allowed for record purposes. It's possible Beamon was launched into space by something gale-force. His 8.90 lasted as a world record until 1991 (August 30).

Lynn Davies must have smiled a particularly wry smile. His Olympic title was taken away exactly four years after he won it. Like Beamon, he'd gone into the 1964 competition as an outsider, only more so. He was faced with the same two favourites as in 1968: Boston had recently equalled then broken Ter-Ovanesian's world record of 8.31 metres. In the Olympic final here in Tokyo, the American took the lead from the Soviet, then increased it in the fourth, with Davies in third place and no-one else in contention. But the conditions were in Lynn The Leap's favour. Cold, wet, windy - just what Davies was used to in Wales. And now Boston came to his assistance too. In Mexico four years later, Beamon had two no-jumps in the qualifying round and was one attempt away from not reaching the final until Boston suggested he take off from well in front of the board. Here in 1964, Davies remembered something Boston had told him about this Tokyo stadium. If the flag at the top of it drooped, it was a sign that the wind was about to drop. When Lynn looked up before his fifth-round jump, the flag was hanging limp for once. So he set off. His 8.07 metres was less than Boston's Olympic record from 1960 and only a centimetre further than Jesse Owens had jumped back in 1936. But in these conditions on this damp cinder track, it was good enough to take the lead. Ter-Ovanesian jumped 7.99 to win bronze again - but there was still Boston's last attempt to come. When the measurement came up - 8, then 0 - Davies had his heart in his mouth. But Boston fell four centimetres short. For the first time in Olympic history, both long jumps had been won by competitors from the same country.

2003
A crucial match on England's way to winning rugby union's biggest prize. South Africa were the opposition in Perth, and they'd traumatised England at the previous World Cup (October 24). But Clive Woodward's boys had reasons to be confident. They'd won 16 of their last 17 matches - and if their second string hadn't lost by a single point in France, they would eventually have won 25 in a row, a monster world record. In that run, they'd beaten Australia and New Zealand home and away and thrashed South Africa by 50 points in a Twickenham slugfest (November 23). But there were reasons to be nervous too. In the previous tournament, defeat by New Zealand (October 9) had forced England into an extra game and ultimately defeat by South Africa (October 24); lose to the Springboks today and they'd be facing New Zealand in the quarter-finals. So the match was tight and nervy. England gave away early penalties, and fly-half Louis Koen kicked two of them. But it wasn't his game today. He also missed three penalties in the first half, so England were lucky to be level at half-time - and when he had a clearance kick charged down by Lewis Moody, Will Greenwood scored the only try of the game. Jonny Wilkinson immediately landed one of his two drop goals, and his 20 points were the difference in a 25-6 win. Kyran Bracken got the better of his scrum-half duel with Joost van der Westhuizen, and England didn't expect any trouble from Samoa in their next match (October 26).

In the same World Cup, Elton Flatley had a field day against poor Romania. He began with a try after only 18 seconds and went on to kick 11 conversions and a penalty as Australia won 90-8 in Brisbane. Their 13 tries were spread around nine different players, including Mat Rogers, who scored three. The only surprise was that big winger Wendell Sailor didn't score any. He and Rogers were former rugby league stars who'd scored in the 2000 World Cup Final (November 25). A week later, Australia won by even more - much more - against Namibia (October 25).

1998
Mark O'Meara was 41 by the time he started winning golf's big prizes. This year he landed the Masters (April 12) and the British Open (July 19) before capping an amazing year by playing in the World Matchplay at Wentworth. In today's final, he met his friend and neighbour Tiger Woods, who was 19 years younger. Youth told in the morning round. Woods refused to concede the 11th hole even though O'Meara needed only a two-foot putt. You'd have given me that back home, said the veteran. Yeah but we're not at home, said Woods. He was smiling but only on the outside. Woods won the 16th to lead by four, but then drove into the trees at the next and O'Meara was relieved to be only three down after the first round. He was level halfway through the afternoon, but Woods regained the lead at the short 10th. O'Meara won the 12th after hitting the flag with his second shot, but Woods had chances to go back in front. missing a ten-foot birdie putt at the 13th and a four-footer at the next. At the 16th, O'Meara found the trees and a bunker - but Woods missed a winning putt again. So it all came down to the last hole, where both golfers bunkered themselves. Yet again, Woods had the advantage, finishing eight feet from the hole with O'Meara just off the green twenty feet away. But the old man made his putt to win the title. Woods was the youngest finalist until Sergio García four years later (October 20).

1908
The first official world record in the women's 100 metres freestyle. Martha Gerstung clocked 1 minute 35 seconds in Magdeburg. At the World Championships in 2009, another German, a bodysuited Britta Steffen, broke her own world record with 52.07 seconds.

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