The gamble of mixing up the running order paid off when Kriss Akabusi overhauled the individual champion on the anchor leg
What’s the most underrated non-annual sporting event of all time? Here’s a contender: the 1991 World Athletics Championships, too often boiled down to Mike Powell v Carl Lewis in an astonishing long jump, and Liz McColgan reducing a 10,000m field to puddles amid harrowing heat and humidity in Tokyo.
Plus: the top six in the men’s 100m all went under 10 seconds. Marie-José Peréc and Michael Johnson stormed to their first global titles, while Finland’s Kimmo Kinnunen flashed in the pan furiously with a 90-metre javelin effort. It was a time, too, before relays became a vehicle to help performance directors meet medal targets. The men’s 4x400m, the final event at Japan’s National Stadium, had everything.
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