• March 20 down the years

Four in a row for Bekele

Kenenisa Bekele won an emotional World Cross-Country Championship double © Getty Images

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2005
In January, Kenenisa Bekele's fiancée had died during a training run. Alem Techale had won the 1500 metres at the World Youth Championships two years earlier. She was only 18 when she died. Today at the World Cross-Country Championships, Bekele won both races for the fourth year in a row. Another Ethiopian, Tirunesh Dibaba, also did the double. Bekele won both again the following year.

A year earlier, Benita Johnson became the first Australian to win a race at the Championships, finishing ahead of Ethiopia's Ejegayehu Dibaba, whose sister Tirunesh was champion the following year and twice more after that.

On the same day in 1971, there was only one event for men and one for women. No long and short races. Those were the days when they were still called International rather than World Championships - and English runners still dominated. On a muddy course typical of the time, a young David Bedford gave one of his front-running masterclasses to win the race at his leisure. Team mate Trevor Wright finished second and England won the team race easily. They won it again the following year, for the ninth time in a row. The English women also retained their team title in 1971, but veteran Joyce Smith could only finish third behind America's Doris Brown. This was the fifth time a women's race was held at the championships. Brown won them all.

1965
Hancock's Match. Well, Hancock's try really, but there was so little else in the game he might as well have it. In the last minute, Scotland were leading 3-0 when their right wing David Whtye chose to run rather than find touch. When he lost the ball in a tackle, Mike Weston picked it up and passed to his wing Andy Hancock inside England's 25. Hancock set off up the left. He survived a tap-tackle, beat a man tight to the touchline, veered inside then outside to beat the full-back's challenge, then swerved away from the last man to score wide out. One of the great individual tries. Later he was annoyed that he hadn't put the ball down nearer the posts, because the conversion was missed and the match was drawn. But after a long run in that mud, and a tackle right at the end, you're forgiven.

So it took Scotland until the same day in 1971 to win at Twickenham for the first time since March 19, 1938. They began by conceding a marvellous try. Jeremy Janion caught a high ball and ran strongly before passing to his left. The ball then went back inside through various pairs of hands before John Spencer put full-back Bob Hiller over in the right-hand corner. But Scotland's captain Peter Brown was their man of the hour. He converted his equalising try, then stepped up right at the end. Hiller kicked three penalties and England led 15-8 with only eight minutes to go. But then scrum-half Dunkie Paterson was first to a loose ball near the England line, and finally Chris Rea cut through to score his second try. Scotland were still 15-14 behind, but Brown placed the ball, turned his back on it, shoulders like a bent coat-hanger, then wheeled round and kicked the goal. For the first time since 1927, Scotland beat England two years in a row.

Asafa Powell breezed to victory in Melbourne © Getty Images

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2006
Between losing Olympic finals and the arrival of Usain Bolt, world record holder Asafa Powell took a break by picking up a minor prize at the Commonwealth Games. The absence of any real competition relaxed him enough to win the 100 metres and meant he didn't have to run any faster than 10.03 to beat Nigeria's Soji Fasuba and Marc Burns of Trinidad & Tobago.

1997
In winning his third and last world title, Canada's Elvis Stojko became the first skater to complete a quadruple jump in a World Championships. But the night was ruined by the death of Carlo Fassi, who coached Olympic and world champions like John Curry, Robin Cousins, Peggy Fleming, and Dorothy Hamill.

2010
Former champion jockey Kieren Fallon was attacked at Lingfield races, shortly after his mount had finished last in a race.

1920
The Calcutta Cup match at Twickenham featured a number of World War veterans. England's Tommy Voyce and Andrew 'Jock' Wemyss of Scotland had both lost an eye. England won 13-4.

1903
Vinnie Richards was born in New York. In his big year of 1924, he began by winning the Wimbledon doubles. Then he won three medals at the Olympic Games in Paris, including two golds. In the final of the singles, he caused a shock by beating local hero Henri Cochet. Richards won the first two sets, then survived one of the great man's famous comebacks to win the fifth 6-2. Richards also won gold in the doubles and silver in the mixed. Later that year, he helped the USA keep the Davis Cup by winning both his singles matches in the Challenge Round. He was also on the teams that retained the Cup in 1922 and 1926.

2010
France ground out a narrow 12-10 victory over England at the Stade de France to seal their first Six Nations Grand Slam since 2004. England fullback Ben Foden scored the only try of the game after five minutes but France prevailed thanks to three penalties from Morgan Parra and a drop-goal from fly-half Francois Trinh-Duc

1948
The Second World War ended a lot of rugby careers. But it also prolonged a few: players who had to be recalled in the absence of any new blood. One of those was Copey Murdoch, whose international career ended today after 13 years and five days, longer than any other Scotland player. His team mate Bill Young was winning his first cap in nine years. He broke from the back of a lineout to score the winning try in a 6-3 win over England at Murrayfield.

At the other end of the longevity scale, one of the shortest international careers of all time. In 1976, Harry McKibbin came on for the last five minutes against Scotland to win his only cap for Ireland, who lost 15-6 in Dublin.

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