Top 3 sporting moments

In the UK we had a few horses that are as well loved by the public here as Secratariat is in the US.

I would single out Red Rum. My father was quite a gambler (and still is) and everyone in the family always bet on a UK horse race called the Grand National. In 1973 I was studying the form in the newspaper and backed Red Rum as he was co-favourite, although it was his first Grand National. My sister backed a horse called "Crisp" as she liked eating Crisps (I was 9 and she was 8 years old). Crisp was the other co-favourite too. During the race, Crisp got a clear, long lead when another horse fell at "the Chair" (a big fence), but Red Rum gained slowly and by the end, beat Crisp by three quarters of a length. It was 25 lengths back to the next horse. He won the Grand National a record 3 times and was humanely put down in 1995. One can visit his grave near the winning post of the racetrack where the Grand National is run.

But there have also been lots of others - Desert Orchid, Shirley Heights, Slip Anchor (offspring of Shirley Heights) and Shergar. Shergar was an impressive racehorse, and winner of the 1981 Epsom Derby by a record 10 lengths, the longest winning margin in the race's 226-year history. A bay colt with a distinctive white blaze, Shergar was named European Horse of the Year in 1981 and retired from racing that September. Two years later, on February 8, 1983, he was kidnapped by masked gunmen from the Ballymany Stud, near The Curragh in County Kildare, Ireland. The generally accepted account is that Shergar was abducted by an IRA unit who killed him a few days later when negotiations for a £2 million ransom had stalled and the horse was becoming uncontrollable. His remains have never been found.

As an aside I attended an MVS internals class towards the end of the 1980's, the instructor was talking about the Interrupt Return Address (IRA) in one of the MVS control blocks. Someone asked "how does MVS get notified about this address?" and someone shouted "by anonymous phone call". I don't know if that translates to US humour or not but the class fell about.

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I was in the Olympic Stadium in Barcelona watching live when Lewis ran that achor leg to equal the world record for the 4x100m relay - a record which still holds to this day. I've always been in awe of Lewis since Los Angeles 1984 when he equalled Jesse Owens 1936 record by winning the "big four". The crowd went nuts back then in 1992, I was sitting next to a mother of two from Idaho who gave me a hug ! I still have photos that I took of that win, although Lewis is tiny in the frame.

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My top sporting moments would have to be:

1. Muhammed Ali defeating George Foreman to regain the heavyweight boxing crown in 1974, Zaire. Foreman was considered invincible and the 32-year-old Ali was given little chance to beat him. The fight was held in Kinsasha, Zaire and Ali employed the now famous Rope-A-Dope tactics to tire Foreman out before stopping him in the eighth round. I vividly recall the drums and the crowd chanting something like "Ali boom ai eh" or something, over and over. It was like a magical Zulu movie, images of darkest Africa. The way Ali won the fight, by just sitting back and taking all the punishment and then defeating his tired-out opponent was pure Sun Tzu, the art of war, and a lesson to me.

2. One I didn't see live, but the replays of England winning the soccer world cup in 1966 by beating West Germany 4-2. In the dying seconds of the match the BBC commentator Kenneth Wolsenholme was speaking:

"And here comes Hurst he's got...
(Wolsenholme's attention is diverted by some of the crowd spilling onto the pitch)
Some people are on the pitch! They think it's all over.
(Geoff Hurst scores to put England two goals ahead)
It is now! It's four. "

You can say "They think it's all over..." to many brits and they will immediately tell you to what it refers to.

3. Borg beating McEnroe at the Wimbledon tennis final in 1980. I spent most of my childhood living in Wimbledon and I and two friends had slept outside the grounds in a queue overnight on the chance that we might be able to get in. We did - we got standing places behind the wheelchair folk and watched the whole match.

Borg's four-year reign at Wimbledon seemed over when McEnroe sailed through the first set with his left-handed serve a dominant factor. But Borg started to find the range with his heavy passing shots in the second set and looked on course for another title when he edged the third. Borg held two match points at 5-4 in the fourth set but McEnroe saved them with diving volleys. Then came a tie-break the like of which may never be seen again. McEnroe had seven set points and Borg five more match points, four on his own serve.

Finally McEnroe took that set, but at what a price. He later admitted he had been exhausted by the emotional and physical strain (so had we all in the crowd), while Borg had enough left. Borg conceded only three points on his seven service games in the fifth set and broke the American with yet another backhand pass.

It was great to see a crass, rude, arrogant genius humbled by stoicism. Of course McEnroe beat him the following year.