• March 10 down the years

Bubka raises the bar

Sergei Bubka is arguably the greatest pole vaulter of all time © Getty Images

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1991
In athletics, the World Indoor Championships ended. Sergei Bubka pole vaulted 6.00 metres; Ireland's Frank O'Mara won the 3000 metres and Mikhail Shchennikov of the USSR won the 5000 metres walk for the third time in a row, setting a world record each time. He won it again the following year and it was discontinued after that. There were no British gold medallists, but Linford Christie was second in the 60 metres, only a hundredth of a second behind the winner. Ben Johnson was fourth.

Five years later to the day, the European Indoor Championships came to an end. The only British winner was Du'aine Ladejo, who retained the 400 metres. Germany's Grit Breuer won the women's race after serving a drugs suspension. Alina Astafei regained the high jump title after switching allegiance from Romania to Germany. And Sandra Myers won the 200 after moving from the USA to represent Spain.

1986
The last fight Marvin Hagler ever won. When he defended his WBC, WBA, and IBF middleweight titles, he knew he was up against the No.1 contender on all three lists. And a boxer who traded in quick knockouts. But Hagler also knew that John 'The Beast' Mugabi didn't have the strongest chin in the world. Some short work coming up. Except that Mugabi had other ideas. He tested his chin - and Hagler's - by occupying the centre of the ring and trading blows. He made the champion look cautious and desperate, and might have won if his conditioning had matched his punch and guts. He'd won all his 25 pro fights by knockout, but all against mediocre opposition, and he'd gone beyond six rounds only once. Here in the 11th, he was worn down by Hagler's right jab after the champion switched to southpaw. A brief series of punches put him down, and he was too knackered to get up. In his next fight, Uganda's finest tried for the WBC light-middleweight title but lasted only three rounds. Then another string of early wins earned him a shot at the same title in 1989. He won it in one round, then lost it in one round the following year! Meanwhile Hagler lost everything on April 6, 1987.

1991
Ayrton Senna won the opening round of the Formula One championship, the United States Grand Prix, on his way to retaining the title.

1898
Wavell Wakefield was born in Kent. He became President of the RFU, an MP, and a Baron, with a pencil moustache to match - but don't hold that against him. This was one serious rugby player, the most influential of the 1920s. He made his England debut in their first match of that decade and won his 31st and last cap in 1927. No-one played more times for England until 1969. Wakefield's pace and stamina modernised the role of flank forward. Previously a static force in ruck and maul, it was suddenly a menace for opposition fly-halves and a 'corner flagging' line of defence. The back row of Wakefield, Tommy Voyce, and Arthur Blakiston terrorised the other four nations from the start: England shared the Championship in Wakefield's first season, then won three Grand Slams in the next four years. He was captain in the last of those and in 13 matches in all. Work commitments stopped him going on any Lions tours.

1850
Spencer Gore was born, spookily appropriately, in Wimbledon. On July 19, 1877, he won the first ever Wimbledon tennis title. Serving round-arm as they did in those days, he took advantage of a net that was two feet higher at the sides. While his opponent William Marshall stayed back, Gore volleying his way to an easy straight-sets win. The following year, he lost the title to Frank Hadow (born January 24, 1855), who countered Gore's 'unsporting' volleys with dastardly lobs. Neither of them played in the Championships again. Gore apparently found the game more monotonous than, say, cricket. He played five first-class matches, including two for Surrey, with a highest score of 36. He was no relation to Arthur 'Wentworth' Gore (January 2, 1868).

Irina Press won Olympic gold at the 1960 Olympics © Getty Images

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1939
Irina Press was born in the Ukraine and competed for the USSR. She and Tamara Press were the scariest sisters in track and field. While Tamara was winning three Olympic golds in throwing events, Irina was equally explosive elsewhere. She won the 80 metres hurdles at the 1960 Games and the first ever Olympic women's pentathlon in 1964. Each time she pushed a British competitor into second place. Penny for the thoughts of Carole Quinton and Mary Rand - because there was something about the Press girls. Like the fact that they may not have been girls at all. When mandatory gender testing was introduced in 1966, both of them disappeared from international competition. Being generous, you could say Tamara was just a very big strong girl - but Irina looked like a furious male mugger. The aggression with which she finished a race or threw an implement. She beat Rand in the pentathlon because she put the shot 20 feet further. Irina set a world record at 60 metres, six in the 80 metre hurdles, and seven in the pentathlon. But outside sport, the sisters must have had difficult lives. Hard to believe they were happy in their skins.

1928
At the All-England badminton championships, Margaret Tragett won the singles title for the first time in 16 years. She lost at least seven Finals in between, including three in a row to Wimbledon tennis champion Kitty McKane. She was still Margaret Larminie when she won the title in 1911 and 1912. Today she beat a Miss N Coop in three games.

Frank Devlin won the men's singles final for the fourth time in a row, the last three against poor AE (Albert Edward) Harbot. Devlin was champion again the following year and in 1931.

1953
Debbie Brill was born in Canada. Dick Fosbury introduced the world to his flop technique at the 1968 OIympics - but Brill claimed she'd come up with it first. The Brill Bend before the Fosbury Flop. If she did, she must have invented it early, because she used it to win the 1970 Commonwealth Games title when she was only 17. She won the silver medal at the 1978 Games and gold again in 1982. At the Olympics, she was eighth in 1972 and fifth in 1984 but 1980 might just have been her time. Canada boycotted the Moscow Games a year after Brill won the World Cup in 1979. She set a world indoor record of 1.99 metres in 1982.

1923
The troubles in Ireland were so bad that snipers were allegedly seen on a roof near the Wales rugby team's hotel. A number of players refused to travel to Dublin, so six new caps were brought in, none of whom was picked again. One of them was 34-year-old Bill Radford, the oldest player ever to make his debut for Wales. Another one, Jack Powell, dropped a goal, but Wales failed to score a try against Ireland for the first time since 1899. The Irish did score one, and converted it to win the game 5-4. Radford drowned less than a year later.

1977
Shannon Miller was born in Missouri and became a typically precocious gymnast. At 14, she won two medals at the World Championships. The 1992 Olympics arrived a year too soon (none of her five medals was gold) but she came into her own in 1993 and 1994, when she was world all-round champion each time and won other titles on the beam, floor, and uneven bars. She climaxed her career by winning beam and team golds at the 1996 Olympics.

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