Linford Christie remains one of Britain’s greatest ever sprinters with an incredible 23 major championships medals, including 100m gold at the Barcelona 1992 Olympic Games.
That success came six years after Christie had first burst onto the international scene with Britain’s only gold medal at the European Indoors Championships of 1986.
In those Championships in Madrid, Christie was drawn in Heat 1 of the 200m and progressed with the second-fastest time (21.42s) as Aleksandr Yevgenyev pipped him to the line in 21.23s.
The British sprinter went quicker in his semi-final (21.33s) but was still not the first man to stop the clock as Nikolay Razgonov ran 21.29 seconds.
But the 25-year-old Christie went even faster still in the final to cross the line in an incredible 21.20 seconds ahead of both Yevgenyev and Razgonov.
It was Christie’s first major title and he wouldn’t have long to wait for his second as the London-based athlete took 100m European outdoor gold in Stuttgart later that year.
On the biggest stage, the Olympic Games of 1988, Christie finished third in the 100m in 9.97s but was later awarded the silver medal following Ben Johnson’s disqualification.
Four years later though, Christie was not going to be denied as, at the age of 32, he ran an incredible 9.96s in the 100m final to take Olympic gold in stunning fashion.
In 1993, the World Championship title was his as well, as he ran a European record of 9.87 seconds – missing out on a world record by just 0.01 seconds.
Having earned gold at the European Championships of 1986 and 1990, Christie sealed a historic success in 1994 and was also atop the podium at the Commonwealth Games of the latter two years.
Christie’s status as one of the best sprinters the sport has ever seen was secured in 1995 when he set his first ever world record.
The sprinter completed the 200m in 20.25s in Lievin in an event that also saw him cut his European Indoor 60m record to 6.47s.
Christie was awarded an MBE in 1990 and an OBE in 1998 and, after retirement in 1997, spent time working for the BBC and coached sprinters Darren Campbell and Katharine Merry.