• March 21 down the years

Macey strikes gold at last

Dean Macey won the decathlon the hard way © Getty Images

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2006
At the Commonwealth Games, Dean Macey won the decathlon, a consolation prize for all the hard toil and injuries and bad luck. Even here, he did it the hard way. After leading for most of the competition, he dropped to second after the javelin with only the 1500 metres to come. Running with strapping on his hamstring and elbow, he finished 69 points ahead of Jamaica's Maurice Smith.

In the women's 1500 metres, Lisa Dobriskey found herself boxed with 100 metres to go but found a way through and sprinted to a surprise win. Hayley Tullett of Wales won the bronze.

2010
Wladimir Klitschko made a triumphant return to action with a 12th-round knockout of Eddie Chambers to retain his IBF, WBO and Ring heavyweight titles. The champion had not fought since beating Ruslan Chagaev in June 2009, but showed no signs of ring-rust as he controlled the bout from the off and finished it off in the last.

2009
At long last. At very long last. The longest last of all. For the first since March 13, 1948, Ireland won the rugby union Grand Slam. Typical of the previous 61 years, they didn't have it easy. They were playing Wales, for a start. In Cardiff. And Wales wanted to win to take the Triple Crown. Plus Ireland had only half a match to win it in: by half-time, Stephen Jones had kicked two penalty goals to put Wales 6-0 ahead. Everything changed in the first few minutes of the second half. Tries by Brian O'Driscoll and Tommy Bowe gave Ireland a 14-6 lead. Back came Jones with two more penalties, then he dropped a goal to regain the lead 15-14. But now we enter spooky-coincidence territory. Six years earlier in the same stadium, Jones had dropped a very late goal to put Wales 24-22 up - only for O'Gara to win the match with an even later drop goal and keep Ireland's Grand Slam hopes alive. Now he did it again, and wrote his name into the books. O'Gara's drop goal made the final score 17-15. Jones had one last chance to spoil the craic, but his penalty from halfway fell short. Karl Mullen, Ireland's captain in 1948, had been waiting up for this. He died a few weeks later aged 82.

On the same day, Italy played their 50th match in the Six Nations - and conceded 50 points. Their try was scored by captain and No.8 Sergio Parisse, one of their very few class players. France scored seven in return, winning 50-8 and leaving their hosts with five defeats out of five. Not a position they were unused to. Since their dramatic debut in the Championships on 5 February 2000, Italy had won only another five matches out of 49. Still, it took France nearly 50 years to win the title for the first time. Something for Italians to cling to among the wreckage.

1998
Ivan Ljubicic won the biggest tournament of his career at the ripe old age of 31, defeating Andy Roddick in two tie-break sets in the final of the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California. The big Croat did it the hard way, battling back to beat Rafael Nadal in the semis before silencing the American crowd with victory over Roddick. On the same day, Jelena Jankovic beat Caroline Wozniacki to lift the women's crown.

1998
At the World Cross-Country Championships, Ireland's Sonia O'Sullivan won the long race after a duel with Paula Radcliffe, who finished second for the second year in a row. The next day, O'Sullivan completed the double. Paul Tergat equalled the record by winning the men's long race for the fourth year in a row. He won it again the following year. The junior men's race was won by a million in one: Million Wolde of Ethiopia. Radcliffe was a winner at last on March 14, 2001.

1925
Scotland celebrated the opening of Murrayfield with a 14-11 win over England that gave them the Grand Slam. Those are the bare facts. The match itself was a thriller. When England captain Wavell Wakefield scored a second-half try, Scotland were two scores behind. Then 'Johnny' Wallace came across from the left wing to score in the right-hand corner, and No.8 Alec Gillies converted superbly from the touchline. Scotland were still 11-10 behind, but drop goals were worth four points at the time, and Herbert Waddell put one over to complete the scoring. England came close to a winning try several times, and in the last minute their fullback Tom 'Toff' Holliday just missed with a long-range drop goal attempt. Wallace scored tries in every match in that season's Championship.

1975
Mark Williams was born in Wales. After losing 18-11 to Stephen Hendry in the final of 1999 World Championship, he won the title the following year. Three years later, he won it again. A new generation had arrived. A dangerous player with a touch of class, Williams showed nerve as well as superb long potting in winning both those finals 18-16. Apart from Ronnie O'Sullivan and Shaun Murphy, who are virtually ambidextrous, Williams is the only left-hander ever to win the world title. The many other tournaments he won included two Masters, two UK Championships, and two Welsh Opens. Not bad for someone who is colour blind!

Mark Williams won the World Championship in 1999 © Getty Images

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1982
A Brazilian driver won the Brazilian Grand Prix. Reigning world champion Nelson Piquet won the second race of the new season - but Keke Rosberg finished second, something he did four times that season on the way to taking the title - while winning only once. Ten different drivers won races that season. Piquet won in Canada but finished only 11th in the Championship.

1925
Hugo Koblet was born. The first non-Italian to win the Giro d'Italia and the last Swiss rider to win the Tour de France. He won the Giro in 1950 and the Tour the following year, when he also won the Grand Prix des Nations, essentially the road time trial World Championship. He won the Tour with a solo ride to Agen, when he held off the best cyclists in the world: Coppi, Bartali, Bobet, Magni, Ockers, you name it. Koblet took the race lead by outsprinting the great Coppi, and finished only 22 seconds ahead of the field. He died in a car crash in 1964.

1981
An illegal try stole the match at Twickenham and secured Grand Slam glory for France. England had won the Grand Slam the previous year. Today they faced a gale-force wind in the first half and found themselves 16-0 down. With the wind behind him, Marcus Rose kicked four penalty goals, but that was as close as England got. France's first try came from a lineout with a new ball supplied by a ball-boy, when the rules specified that ball-boys could only provide the ball which had just gone out of play. The second try was scored by Laurent Pardo, whose grandad played against England on February 23, 1924.

1874
Alf Tysoe was born in Lancashire. A versatile runner who won AAA titles from 880 yards to ten miles, he was one of the very few British track and field athletes to win two gold medals at one Olympic Games: the 800 and the 5000 metres team race in 1900. He was only 27 when he died of pleurisy the following year.

1955
Bärbel Wöckel was born Bärbel Eckert in Leipzig. At 200 metres, she was Olympic champion in 1976 and 1980 as well as winning gold in the sprint relay at both Games, the second one in a world record that's still the Olympic record. She was European champion in 1982 ahead of the unlucky Kathy Smallwood - unlucky because we know how Wöckel did it. People knew at the time, but proof arrived mob-handed when Germany was re-united. In a letter to an East German research director, Marita Koch complained that 'my drugs were not as potent as the ones that were given to my opponent Bärbel Eckert, who kept beating me.' The usual taste in the mouth.

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