Records

The 6ft 4in Cuban was already assured of his place in the history books before he really hit the heights in 1993, at the age of 25. Four years previously he had become the first man to clear 8ft (2.44m). He won gold at the 1992 Olympics, and was the favourite to win at the 1993 World Championships.

In the run-up to that event, after victories in Havana and London, Sotomayor went to Salamanca where he cleared 2.45m at his second attempt, setting a new world record.

He would go on to win at the World Championships in 1993 — and in 1997 — but his career would end in controversy: he retired in 2001 after failing a drugs test for a second time.

Spectators at the 1987 World Championships in Rome were still agog after the men’s 100m final in which Ben Johnson ran a 9.83 world record (later annulled) to beat Carl Lewis. But those who were able to focus their attention on the women's high jump were in for a treat.

Russian Tamara Bykova was locked in a battle with Stefka Kostadinova of Bulgaria. Bykova, ahead on countback, failed at 2.08m, leaving Kostadinova to attempt a world-record height: 2.09m. She cleared it at her second attempt.

Her mark still stands almost 21 years on, although Croatia’s Blanka Vlasic, who set a PB of 2.07m in 2007, has the potential to break it.