• August 9 down the years

Daley does it again

Daley Thompson made it two on this day © Getty Images

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1984
Daley Thompson won the Olympic decathlon for the second time. When he won his first (July 26 1980), the world record holder was absent. No such luxury this time - but Thompson was still the favourite. West Germany's Jürgen Hingsen, of the statuesque build and dodgy 'tache, had gone into the previous European and World Championships as world record holder (August 13), only to finish second. Same again today. With one throw to come in the discus, Hingsen was about to take the lead and win the gold. But Thompson, the arch competitor, came through with a great third attempt. Hingsen had a dreadful pole vault and the rest was processional - especially the 1500 metres at the end. Typical Thompson. Needing to push himself a bit to break the world record, he ambled around and missed it by a single point. It was later discovered in the hurdles, so he got a share of the record - and when new scoring tables came in, he became the sole holder. His 8,798 is still the British best despite the efforts of Dean Macey.

1938
Rod Laver was born in Queensland. The greatest male tennis player of all time? A definite maybe. Would his serve and volley have been as effective today, given that he was only medium height? Well, it still looks authentic on screen - and anyway there was more to his game than that. Andre Agassi wasn't tall, but he had on of the greatest returns of serve - and the Rocket's was almost as good. Then there was that speed around the court, and the Popeye left forearm. Plus he had the stamina and groundstrokes to win on clay, so the package was pretty complete. Laver was the only player to win two Grand Slams, and if you sniff at the first, in 1962, when he was still an amateur and the best players were professionals, there's no scoffing at the second, in 1969 (September 8). He took a while to reach the top, losing consecutive Wimbledon singles finals before winning his third and fourth in a row, in 1961 and 1962. He missed the next five years by turning pro, then carried on where he left off by winning the first Open Championships. As well as those four singles titles, he won the Wimbledon doubles in 1971 and the mixed in 1959 and 1960. He won the Australian singles three times and the US and French in his Grand Slam years. He helped Australia to five Davis Cup finals from 1959 to 1973, winning the lot. He's right up there, don't doubt it. Maybe at the top.

2002
Britain's Steve Backley equalled the record of Janis Lusis (born May 19, 1939) by winning the javelin at the European Championships for the fourth time in a row. His opening throw of 86.29 metres left him second behind the 88.05 of Russia's Sergei Makarov, but he came through with 88.54 in the fifth round. The following day, another British athlete also won his event for the fourth time.

1980
No world boxing champion fought fewer pro fights than little Leo Randolph, who had his 19th and last today. He won the WBA super-bantamweight title in his last bout before this and lost it in five rounds today. In 1976 Randolph was only 18 when he won Olympic gold at flyweight on a great night for American boxing (July 31).

1936
Britain finished with two track and field golds from these Berlin Olympics. Harry Whitlock won the walk (August 5) and the Americans handed over the long relay today. Archie Williams had won the 400 metres with Jim LuValle third. So naturally their coaches left both of them out. Britain's Godfrey Brown had finished a close second to Williams, so when he began the anchor leg with a four-metre lead, the gold was assured. He finished 12 yards clear of America's second strings. Godfrey Rampling, who ran a storming second leg, lived to be 100 (June 20 2009). His daughter Charlotte was a famous actress.

Brown's sister Audrey won silver in the sprint relay, which would have been bronze if their hostesses hadn't dropped the baton. In the first round, the German girls set a world record of 46.4 seconds that lasted very nearly 16 years. In the final, they led by a whopping nine yards at the last changeover. As the tall rangy Marie Dollinger tried to hand the baton to short stocky Ilse Dörfeldt, they had their eyes on gold - and dropped the aluminium. One of the USA girls who won the race was Betty Robinson, who'd won the inaugural 100 metres as a 16-year-old in 1928 (July 31) and recovered from a car crash that left her unable to bend her leg fully, so she couldn't compete in individual sprints. But she was OK when a baton came her way. Dollinger's daughter Brunhilde Hendrix won silver in the relay in 1960.

This being the Nazi Games, politics had to rear its ugly side. In the men's sprint relay, the USA changed their team for the final. The Berlin crowd and even the German leadership were accustomed to black athletes winning gold medals by now, so American officials let Jesse Owens run the first leg and Ralph Metcalfe the second. But black runners were one thing, jews another. The runners dropped from the team were Marty Glickman and Sam Stoller, the only Jewish members of the US track team. The relay was duly won. The time of 39.8 was the first under 40 seconds, a world record that lasted 20 years. Metcalfe won his gold medal at last (August 3) and Frank Wycoff his third in the event. But the price was a high one. Fifty years after the Games, Glickman broke down in fury when he visited the stadium.

1981
Larry Nelson won the US PGA twice on this day. In 1981, two middle rounds of 66 set up him up for a four-shot win over Frank 'Fuzzy' Zoeller. In 1987, Nelson was neck-and-neck with Lanny Wadkins, picking up one stroke in the final round to force a play-off, which he won when Wadkins bogeyed the first hole in the sudden-death play-off. Wadkins also finished runner-up at the 1982 US PGA. He picked up five shots on Ray Floyd during the last round, but Floyd had opened with a 63, which equalled the major record, and won the title by three strokes.

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