This decade included Olympics in Moscow, LA and Seoul as our ‘greatest moments’ series continues to mark the 80th anniversary of AW
Wells wins
The Moscow Olympics of 1980 were affected by the boycotts of a number of nations due to Russia’s invasion of Afghanistan. With the USA absent, Cuba’s Silvio Leonard was favourite for men’s 100m but Britain’s Allan Wells won his quarter-final in a British record of 10.11.
In the final, curiously Wells was drawn in lane one, with Leonard in lane eight and there was little between the two contenders, with the former’s dip giving him victory by inches as both were given a time of 10.25. The Scot narrowly missed out on gold in the 200m final, losing to Pietro Mennea of Italy by 0.02 with a British record of 20.21.
Wells had to put up with suggestions that his win had been devalued by the US boycott but, less than two weeks after Moscow, he took on a field that included the best American sprinters of the day in Germany and won in a time of 10.19.
Hand in hand in London
Chris Brasher’s visit to the New York Marathon in 1979 sowed the seed for bringing a similar event to Britain. The 1956 Olympic steeplechase champion wasted little time in launching the London marathon, with plans made for a first edition in 1981 with the help of £40,000 sponsorship from Gillette and also from the Greater London Council.
Brasher anticipated 3000 or 4000 runners in the first year but there were 21,872 applications and 7,700 were accepted. The day of March 29 was chosen.
The event taking place was significant in itself but the finish of the men’s race was made all the more memorable when American Dick Beardsley and Norwegian Inge Simonsen made a late decision to run in together rather than sprint it out, holding hands as they crossed the line in 2:11:48, a minute up on Trevor Wright’s 2:12:53.
Joyce Smith ran a British record 2:29:57 to win the women’s race by nine minutes from New Zealander Gillian Drake.
World Championships has lift-off
In 1983, Helsinki provided the staged for the first ever IAAF World Championships.
A total of 1355 athletes from 153 countries competed, with Carl Lewis of the USA winning three gold medals (100m, long jump and 4x100m), Steve Cram taking the 1500m to become Britain’s first gold medallist and Finland’s Tiina Lillak winning a dramatic javelin competition in front of her home crowd. Grete Waitz won the…
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