The Italian officials at the 1987 World Athletic Championships, where amidst a lot of noise, flying sand and what not, the local officials managed to "misread" Evangalista's - a local long jumper - leap and propel him from a medal-less position to one of silver glory. He was later stripped of his medal, but will always have the photographs of him standing alongside all time great Carl Lewis on the medal podium. What a shame.

At the same Roma Games, some of you may remember Ben Johnson shattering the 100 meters World Record for the first time, only after he had administered himself a crateful of steroids which were created in order to beef up herds of cattle!

Bad Ben was finally caught for cheating at the Seoul Olympic games 1988 and subsequently stripped of his records, his medals and his dignity.

The Seville Athletics World Championships also witnessed robbery of an unusual kind as Italy’s former Brit was denied a gold medal by some very dubious decisions by the line judge who apparently couldn’t see what a worldwide audience clearly saw.

Perfectly clear to everyone in the stadium with a view of the giant screen and millions of viewers on TV was the fact that the Cuban turned Spaniard's winning jump was decisively over the allowed limit. It is certainly true that there were only millimetres in it, but the fact is that her foot was clearly over the line and thus the jump was NOT a legal one. However because the home crowd was desperate for a hero and the organisers subconsciously concerned that if local athletes didn’t perform, then local crowds would stay away, poor Fiona May was robbed of a gold medal.

Those Seoul Games that saw Johnson’s painful fall from cloud nine saw a new queen of sprint make her ascent to a pinnacle that no woman had previously even dreamed of. The grinning Florence Griffith Joyner exploded to some of the most outrageously fast times ever recorded by a woman. Especially for a woman who had been competing for a number of years already and especially in an event (100m sprint) where people don’t improve by half a second over one off season.

Here was a woman who was running as fast as Jesse Owens ran in the Berlin Games, and that too while grinning and waving her arms in pre-celebratory gestures to the adoring masses on TV! Then, just as suddenly, the woman who had been striving for so many years to reach the very top without success until this moment decided to call it a day there and then!

One would have thought that she may have wanted to enjoy her new found supreme powers, which she claimed came from "relaxing and enjoying" her running, and perhaps bask in the glory that was bound to lie ahead for her. Not at all! Instead she decides to quit the sport that very week! Numerous athletes including a famous Brazilian 800-meter runner didn’t even recognise her because of her new physique. She had completely mutated physically in an off season period of 8 months or so.

Previously a svelte, muscular runner, known for her grace and glamour she was now a bulging jumble of muscles, veins and sinews, not a pretty sight, akin to a female body builder, therefore grotesquely over developed and abnormal. Even the East German drug queens, worried about being shown up amidst tighter testing, couldn’t keep up with this new, revamped, souped up Flo-Jo as she was now to be known.

Then, there were the interviews after the races where she could barely raise her octaves enough and ended up sounding like a male version of Lauren Bacall. Clearly, something strange happened overnight to our beloved Flo Jo, and though I agree it is not "nice" to insinuate, especially as the person in question is now dead. You of course all know about how Flo Jo died... seizures apparently. The kind that many people who take certain types of things for whatever reason might be prone to if you know what we mean.

After all that nastiness however I have to thank Flo Jo, for providing years and years of grace and beauty to the sport, not to mention a very fine sprinting talent. But alas, we also have to thank her for damaging our beloved sport of Track and Field in the sense that the records she has set are totally ridiculous and were clearly tainted.

Florence never ran anything like that rapidly ever before despite seasons and seasons as an internationally renowned sprinter. Only in her very last season in the sport did she suddenly turn into not only an overnight world-champion but also someone who demolished the sports record books while sort of posing and running at the same time. Because of her, it is quite possible that I may now never see another women’s 200-meter world record as long as I live. That may also be true for the 100-meter record.

In the men's field, the progression (now that the drug cheats have been weeded out) is totally normal: a hundredth of a second shaved off the record every two or three years. Sadly the women’s athletic records are enormously tainted and though names like Marita Koch and Jarmila Kratochvilova are some of the names that provided the sports most exhilarating moments, perhaps its time to acknowledge that those performances were chemically enhanced.

In the case of Koch and Heike Drechsler, documents have clearly revealed that they were part of a systematic doping plan by the East German sports authorities just as that countries record-busting women’s swimming team were a bunch of drug cheats.

How come in women’s athletics hardly any of the records have been threatened ever since drug testing became a little more fool proof in the 90’s and since the Cold political détente came to an end? How come for the first time since people started making records of athletics and timing was introduced it is the first decade ever that the natural progression of women’s records has come to a staggering halt? How come?

How come virtually all women’s performances of athletes in the 90’s are far below then their 80’s counterparts. Have women suddenly become less physically capable in the 90’s compared to the 80’s even though throughout history there has been a natural progression and curve?

Please sue us for defamation of character and all that but I believe that on the basis of clear evidence, the records of women in athletics should be either scratched and started once again, or then take the opportunity of the new millennium by creating a separate list of records for this century.

The old records can remain as outstanding performances of the last century. Or even better, why not just keep two lists of records. One set for drug free performances and others, which can include any number of drugs! The best of both worlds this way?

Recent events (April 2003) have suggested that some top American athletes failed drug tests in the run up to the Seoul 1988 Olympics but were still allowed to compete. Among the named athletes are Carl Lewis, Andre Phillips and Joe DeLoach. Surely these revelations are further indirect evidence that cast further doubts on the super-human performances of the late great Florence Griffith-Joyner?

What a total mess the situation is in..........which of the World Records are untainted which are - the whole things a total shamble. High time for the IAAF to act, no pun intended.

Check out these wonders of the world:
ARGUABLY THE GREATEST EVER TRACK PERFORMANCE BY A WOMAN: MARITA KOCH destroying the 400m record in 1985 - a record that stands virtually unthreatened almost 20 years hence.

JARMILA KRATOCHVILOVA Turning on the power in one of the most breathtaking relay legs ever seen - she was in devastating form in 1983 and 1984 when politics denied fans of a mouthwatering Olympic showdown between the three K's; Koch, Kratochvilova and Tatiana Kocembova Vs the Best of the US and co.

SILKE GLADISCH flies to the 200m World title in Rome 1987 - understudy of Gohr and Koch finally came into her own during these Games.

THE DDR Relay team scorch to yet another World Record that still stands all these years later

One of the finest showdowns in women's sprint history. EVELYN ASHFORD takes on MARLIES GOHR at the 100m on a still, balmy night in Zurich in 1984.

Watch in awe as FLORENCE GRIFFITH-JOYNER crushes the opposition at the Seoul Olympics with a series of devastating sprints from the 100m and the 200m - "overnight sensation"?
the 200m SF, the WORLD RECORD 200m Seoul Final.
The 100m Semi Final,
The Seoul Olympic 100m Final

Big Bad BEN JOHNSON's two World Record busting drug assisted 100 meters sprints - From Rome in '87 and from Seoul in '88.