Colin Jackson dips to win in Stuttgart

In 1999, defending champion Allen Johnson was out with a calf injury while Mark Crear, the fastest man in the world that season, was disqualified for two false starts.

Jackson produced his best time of the year when it mattered, dipping on the line to see off Cuba's Anier Garcia.

Linford Christie (100m 1993)

This was the sweetest victory of Christie's career.

The year before he had taken the Olympic title in Barcelona to huge acclaim from everyone - except Carl Lewis.

The American sprint legend, who failed to make his country's team for Spain, told the world that Christie's win was devalued by his own absence.

If Lewis had been there, he argued, Christie would not have got a look in.

So when Christie ran a sensational 9.87secs to seal gold for the second time in two years - with Lewis trailing in fourth with 10.02secs - there was a certain glee detectable in his post-race celebrations.

Sally Gunnell (400m hurdles 1993)

Gunnell had led to the final hurdle at the 1991 World Championships before appearing to panic.

She stuttered, clattered over the hurdle and watched in despair as Tatyana Ledovskaya raced past her in the final few strides.

But by 1993 she was a different athlete.

Having taken Olympic gold in Barcelona she was the dominant hurdler in the race.

Team captains Gunnell and Christie get that golden feeling

In Stuttgart she put together the perfect race to come home in a new world record time of 52.74secs, holding off the determined challenge of Sandra Farmer-Patrick.

Steve Cram (1500m 1983)

Aged just 23, Cram - still two years from his 1985 peak - dominated a slow race with a perfect display of middle distance running.

American Steve Scott and Moroccan Said Aouita were left chasing his heels as he eased home in 3mins 41.59secs.

The real tragedy of Cram's career was that his golden periods never coincided with an Olympic Games.

Jonathan Edwards (triple-jump 1995)

This was the year that Edwards leapt not only to the top of the triple-jumping rankings, but also into the record books.

Before 1995 he had been a promising, if inconsistent performer better known for his religious beliefs than championship-winning feats.

After the events of that summer, he became the man who redefined his sport.

After taking the world record with 17.98m at Salamanca, he achieved the unprecedented feat of world records on his first two jumps in the World Championship final in Gothenburg.

His leaps of 18.16m and 18.29m were the first 18m and 60ft jumps with a legal wind in history.

Roger Black opens out for Britain in 1991

Liz McColgan (10,000m 1991)

For most of the runners in Tokyo, it was the expected extreme heat and humidity that had been on their minds throughout their preparations.

For McColgan, it had been the small matter of giving birth to her first child.

With typical determination - or obsession, as some termed it - she trained until two weeks before her daughter's birth and began again 12 days after.

Three months later, she defied the conditions and a high-class field to take the title by a staggering 20 seconds.

Roger Black, Derek Redmond, John Regis, Kris Akabusi (Men's 4x400m 1991)

The Brit Pack were given little chance before the race.

With newly-crowned 400m world champ Antonio Pettigrew on the final leg for the dominant Americans, the result was considered a foregone conclusion.

Except by the Brits.

Just before the gun, Roger Black switched from the anchor to the first leg - the idea being to be up there with the Americans at the final change-over.

Kris Akabusi took the baton from Regis on the shoulder of Pettigrew, hung with him for 350m and then battled past in the ultimate display of desire over ability.

Fatima Whitbread (javelin 1987)

Whitbread had suffered heartbreak in Helsinki four years earlier when home favourite Tiina Lillak snatched gold with the last throw of the competition.

At last: Whitbread celebrates gold in Rome

At the Los Angeles Olympics of 1984 Sanderson again had to settle for less than best when compatriot Tessa Sanderson took gold.

But in Rome she was to be denied no longer.

Sanderson stormed to gold with a throw of 76.64m to beat the formidable Petre Felke of East Germany into silver.

Daley Thompson (decathlon 1983)

Coming between his Olympic golds in Moscow and Los Angeles, the 1983 Worlds found Daley at his imperious peak.

With old West German rivals Jurgen Hingsen and Siggi Wentz hot on his heels, Daley held on over the final 1500m - as always his most hated event of the ten.

In 1980 and 1984, Cold War boycotts deprived him of the chance to beat every decathlete in the world.

In Helsinki, Thompson proved himself best in the world, bar none.