Colin Jackson and Sally Gunnell smashed world records, while John Regis and Linford Christie ran European records – and these marks remain UK records today

The rollercoaster history of British athletics has featured many highs and lows. Tokyo 1964 was particularly successful with Ann Packer, Mary Rand, Lynn Davies and Ken Matthews winning gold medals. Los Angeles in 1984 saw victories from Seb Coe, Daley Thompson and Tessa Sanderson as Britain won 16 medals in total, albeit at a boycotted Games.

Some might argue the sight of Coe, Steve Cram and Tom McKean rounding the final bend in the European 800m in Stuttgart 1986 “like Spitfires out of the sun” epitomised a golden era in the 1980s. Or how about Super Saturday at London 2012 with Jessica Ennis-Hill, Greg Rutherford and Mo Farah all victorious on the same night?

If you’re looking for the moment in history when British athletics “peaked”, though, it is hard to look beyond the World Championships in Stuttgart in August 1993.

Of Britain’s four gold medallists at those championships were two world records courtesy of Sally Gunnell in the 400m hurdles and Colin Jackson in the 110m hurdles and two European records from Linford Christie in the 100m and John Regis in the 200m.

Almost 30 years later their performances have not been beaten by any other British athletes. This is despite training methods and synthetic tracks supposedly being inferior in 1993 and not a super-shoe in sight either.

Christie went into the 100m final at those championships as reigning Olympic champion and in Stuttgart he clocked 9.87 (0.3) to beat the US trio of Andre Cason, Denis Mitchell and Carl Lewis. “Everybody was here and it was nice to beat them all,” he said in the AW coverage at the time.

Since then James Dasaolu has got closest with 9.91 in 2013 (Dwain Chambers also equalled Christie’s mark but his result was later disqualified following an anti-doping ban). There is a similar story in the 200m where Regis’s time in Stuttgart of 19.94 (0.3) has only been beaten by his own 19.87 (1.8) set the following year at altitude in Sestriere. Behind Regis, the next best Brit is Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake with 19.95 (0.4) from 2016.

Regis did not win gold in Stuttgart either. Such was the standard of the competition, he led in the home straight and beat nine-time Olympic champion Lewis into third, but was runner-up behind the fast-finishing Frankie Fredericks as the Namibian ran an African record of 19.85.

“I thought after watching Colin and Tony that it would have been a shame if I let the side down,” said Regis, “so I was determined to give it 100 per cent.”

Regis was of course referring to Jackson and Tony Jarrett in the 110m hurdles in Stuttgart. Running a near-flawless race, Jackson clocked 12.91 (0.5) with silver medallist Jarrett running an English record of 13.00. Nearly 30 years later the Brit who has got closest to their marks is Andy Pozzi with 13.14.

“I wanted to be precise, accurate and fast,” said Jackson, whose brilliant run is featured in the August issue of AW magazine which is on sale now here.

A further world record came from Gunnell in the 400m hurdles as she beat Sandra Farmer-Patrick in a classic head-to-head to become the first British woman to break a track world record since Packer over 800m in 1964.

Gunnell clocked 52.74 – a time that is almost a second quicker than the second-fastest Brit in history, Perri Shakes-Drayton – and she said: “Technically it was the perfect race. I had a bit of a cold last week but tried to put that to the back of my mind. I had dinner with Colin and Linford the night before and they helped convince me I could win.”

At the Gottlieb Daimler Stadium that week, Britain won 10 medals in total with performances that, in some cases, have also stood the test of time.

In the high jump Steve Smith leapt 2.37m to finish behind winner Javier Sotomayor of Cuba and and Artur Partyka of Poland. Years later, no other Briton has managed to beat his mark, although Smith himself jumped one centimetre higher indoors two years later.

Also winning bronze was Jonathan Edwards in a triple jump contest won by Mike Conley of the United States. In the men’s javelin, Mick Hill took bronze with team-mate Steve Backley fourth as gold went to Czech thrower Jan Zelezny.

READ MORE: Sally Gunnell’s golden moment

There were relay medals as well as Jackson, Jarrett, Regis and Christie combined to clock 37.77 just behind the United States, while the women’s 4x400m quartet of Linda Keough, Phylis Smith, Tracy Goddard and Gunnell ran 3:23.41 to take bronze.

Elsewhere Curtis Robb and Diane Modahl finished a fine fourth in their respective 800m finals. Alison Wyeth and Paula Radcliffe finished fifth and seventh in the women’s 3000m. Matt Yates finished sixth in a 1500m won by Noureddine Morceli of Algeria.

Also making the top eight in their event was Tom McKean in the 800m and the women’s 4x100m squad.

Since the high of Stuttgart in 1993 it’s not quite been all downhill since of course. There have been a number of peaks and troughs over the years. Still, when it comes to British athletics being at the height of its powers it’s hard to find a more enduring moment.