• September 25 down the years

Edwards jumps for gold

Jonathan Edwards was already the world record holder but had never won the Olympic Games © Getty Images

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2000 A big day in track and field at the Sydney Olympics.

Jonathan Edwards won Olympic gold at last. Four years earlier ( July 27), he'd gone into the Games as huge favourite after the incredible world records he set in 1985 ( August 7). And he jumped a long way in Atlanta: 17.88 metres, which would have won gold at any other Olympics, before or since. But USA's Kenny Harrison hit a monster 18.09 to force him into second place. Still, Edwards was so dominant in the next few years that he was favourite again in Sydney even at the age of 34. And sure enough, when he reached 17.71 in the third round, the competition was over. No-one else cleared 17.50. Two other British jumpers finished fifth and sixth: 'Larry' Achike and Phillips Idowu.

Outside Britain, and certainly inside Australia, the big event of the day was the women's 400 metres. Like Edwards, Cathy Freeman had won silver four years before. Unlike Edwards, she hadn't been expected to win gold. Today the expectations were sky-high. Freeman had lit the flame at the opening ceremony, and now there were 112,000 people to watch her, the biggest crowd for any Olympic event. Wearing a daft hooded bodysuit, Freeman didn't take a clear lead until the last 80 yards, then she pulled way to win by four. Jamaica's Lorraine Graham finished second, with two British runners just behind: Katharine Merry, a former young prodigy as a sprinter, took the bronze ahead of Donna Fraser. Freeman's gold was the first in any Olympics by an Australian Aborigine.

In the men's race, reigning champion Michael Johnson won gold again in a time of 43.84 which was almost pedestrian by his standards.

Haile Gebresilasie of Ethiopia also retained an Olympic title. To win the 10,000 metres, he had to narrowly outsprint Kenya's Paul Tergat for the second Games in a row.

Britain's Kelly Holmes won bronze in the 800 metres behind perennial rival Maria Mutola of Mozambique. Holmes led into the home straight but couldn't hold on in the last fifty yards. She was 30 by then and must have wondered if she'd ever win an Olympic gold medal ( August 23).

Ireland's Sonia O'Sullivan also had a battle down the home straight, trying several times to overtake Gabriela Szabo, who was about half her height. But the Romanian held on to win by a couple of yards.

When the pole vault was added to the women's events for the first time, Australia expected another gold medal from Emma George, who set 12 world records in a row. But by 1999, George had been overtaken by Stacy Dragila of the USA, and she didn't qualify for today's Final. Dragila won gold with 4.60 metres, just three centimetres off her own world record.

And that smooth stylist Anier García won the 110 metres hurdles. Britain's Colin Jackson, in his fourth Olympic final, finished fifth, eight years after his best chance of gold ( August 3).

Fernando Alonso was the youngest world champion before Lewis Hamilton © Sutton Images

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2005
Fernando Alonso became the youngest world champion until then, undercutting Émerson Fittipaldi in 1972. Alonso had won six races this season. So had Kimi Räikkönen, but Alonso had picked up so many more points in other races that third place in Brazil was enough to take the title with two races to spare. He started on pole in his Renault but was outpaced by the two McLarens: Räikkönen set the fastest lap, and Juan Pablo Montoya won the race. Michael Schumacher finished one place behind Alonso, who put an end to the Ferrari driver's run of five world titles in a row. Alonso was 24 years 58 days old, the youngest world champion before Lewis Hamilton in 2008.

1988
Florence Griffiths-Joyner never failed a drugs test. But nor did most athletes of that generation. After finishing a distant second in the 200 metres at the 1987 World Championships, she suddenly emerged the following year with a ludicrous world record of 10.49 seconds for the 100 metres ( July 16). In Seoul today, she took the Olympic title with a time that was wind-assisted and not much slower: 10.54 - despite grinning for half the race. Well, you do have to laugh. And if you thought that was grotesque, you should have seen her 200.

Still in the swimming pool, Vladimir Salnikov regained his title in the 1500 metres freestyle. When he won it in 1980, he was the first swimmer to go under 15 minutes. Today he swam just outside that mark, but it was two seconds faster than anyone else. Salnikov would almost certainly have won the event in 1984 if the USSR hadn't boycotted the Los Angeles Games. When he entered the cafe in the Olympic Village here in Seoul, everyone in there stood and applauded.

It was the other way round for Ed Moses, who regained the 400 metre hurdles title in 1984 after missing the 1980 Moscow Olympics thanks to the US boycott. So instead of trying for a fourth gold in the event today, he was looking for number three. He came close too, but at 33 he didn't quite have the legs any more. The year before, he'd retained his world title by inches, and now he faded in the home straight as his American team-mate Andre Phillips ran 47.19 seconds to break Moses's Olympic record. He finished only four hundredths of a second ahead of Senegal's Amadou Dia Ba, with Moses third.

1962
The night Sonny Liston got his big chance at last and took it with both fists. Floyd Patterson couldn't avoid him any longer. When Patterson won the world heavyweight title in 1956, he was 21, the youngest before Mike Tyson. He did it by beating Archie Moore, an all-time great but one who was about twice Floyd's age. Then Patterson defended the title against a series of stiffs, including Britain's Brian London and a boxer making his professional debut! And he lost the title when he was knocked down seven times in one round ( June 26, 1959). But to his credit Patterson became the first heavyweight to regain the world title, and he won the decider too. Then it was back to the cannon fodder, a fourth-round KO in December before he had to face Liston at last. There were claims that Sonny's alleged mob connections kept him from an earlier title shot (he was 30 by now), but the truth is that no-one was eager to get in the ring with him. He was just too big and dangerous. Whereas Patterson was never more than a beefed-up light-heavyweight (he was Olympic champion at middleweight), Liston was 15 stone of bad road, an unsmiling slab of a man with hurt in both hands. A string of quick wins over top contenders left him on top of the pile - and Patterson with nowhere to go. Describing their title fight doesn't take long. Patterson began with a trademark leaping left, but that was Liston's last backward step. Every punch he threw carried ominous weight - and when he caught Patterson on the ropes, a right followed by a left knocked the champion down. He was counted out on one knee and it was all over in two minutes and five seconds. The return fight next year lasted four seconds longer. Liston looked likely to go down as one of the best champions, but first he had to deal with a lippy young Cassius Clay ( February 25, 1964).

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