18 April 2012

Daley Thompson’s memorable gold medal winning decathlon performance from the 1984 LA Olympics has been voted as athletics fans’ favourite performance from an Olympic Games over the last 60 years.

The charismatic Thompson, who scored a world record of 8847 points to beat Jurgen Hingsen  defended the title he first won in 1980,

The online poll by UKA which featured every gold medal winning performance in the post World War era, was launched last week and asked athletics fans across the UK to vote on which spine tingling moment held the most significance.

In second place was the hugely emotional 800m performance from Kelly Holmes in Athens 2004, which saw years of injury filled frustration put behind her, crossing the line ahead of Hasna Benhassi in a time of 1:56.38.

Holmes also took third place in the poll with her 1500m winning performance from the same Games, making the double gold medallist the recipient of the most votes overall in the entire poll – albeit split across two performances.

Next most popular was the Mexico 1968 400m hurdles gold won by David Hemery. He won in 48.12 ahead of Gerhard Hennige.

Other strong performers in the poll included Mary Peters’ 1972 pentathlon win, Don Thompson’s 50k Walk gold from the 1960 Olympics, and Ann Packer’s ground breaking 1964 800m gold.

The poll was part of UKA’s celebrations of 100 days to go until the London Olympic Games.

As well as confirming that UKA will be paying for the pair of tickets that athletes can access for each session of the Olympic Games, today UKA will be giving away a prize every half hour to fans that follow @UKA_athletics on Twitter. http://www.uka.org.uk/media/news/april-2012/18-04-12-athlete-olympic-tickets/

Top Gold Medal Winning Moments Below as voted for by UK athletics fans*:

1. 1984 – Daley Thompson Decathlon
2. 2004 – Kelly Holmes 800m
3. 2004 – Kelly Holmes 1500m
4. 1968 – David Hemery 400m Hurdles
5. 1972 – Mary Peters Pentathlon
6. 1960 – Don Thompson 50k Walk
7. 1964 – Ann Packer 800m
8. 1980 – Steve Ovett 800m
= 1992 – Sally Gunnell 400m Hurdles
9. 2000 – Jonathan Edwards Triple Jump
= 2004 – Men’s 4 x 100m Relay
10. 1980 – Seb Coe 1500m
11. 2000 – Denise Lewis Heptathlon
12. 1984 – Seb Coe 1500m
13. 1992 – Linford Christie 100m
14. 1980 – Allan Wells 100m
15. 1980 – Daley Thompson Decathlon
= 2008 – Christine Ohuruogu 400m
16. 1964 – Ken Matthews 20k Walk
17. 1964 – Lynn Davies Long Jump
18. 1984 – Tessa Sanderson Javelin
19. 1964 – Mary Rand Long Jump
20. 1956 – Chris Brasher 3000m Steeplechase