Global gold medallists and record-breakers at the MOWA exhibition in Glasgow
On Saturday (2), eight global gold medallists and/or world record-breakers gathered at a ceremony hosted by two-time Olympic 1500m champion Sebastian Coe, to donate historic items of competition memorabilia to the Museum of World Athletics (MOWA).
The audience of more than 300 people who gathered for the ceremony at the MOWA Indoor Athletics Exhibition at the St Enoch Centre, Glasgow, was dotted with stars including Kenya’s world 800m record-holder David Rudisha and Ukraine’s 2008 Olympic heptathlon champion Nataliia Dobrynska.
The eight athletes, who were making donations to the MOWA to mark the staging of the World Athletics Indoor Championships Glasgow 24, were presented in alphabetical order: Steve Cram, Ron Hill (Graham Richards, on behalf of the family of the late Ron Hill), Denise Lewis, Tom McKean, Fiona May, Yvonne Murray-Mooney, John Regis and Allan Wells.
Cram - Moscow 1980
Steve Cram, 1983 world 1500m champion, Olympic medallist, and multiple world record-breaker, was the first man to run 1500m within three minutes and 30 seconds.
Cram donated his Olympic tracksuit from the Moscow 1980 Olympic Games where, aged 19, he reached the final of the 1500m, finishing eighth. He handed his top over to Coe who won his first Olympic gold medal in that race.
Hill - Munich 1972
The next donation accepted by the president of World Athletics on behalf of MOWA was from Graham Richards, managing director of Ron Hill Sports. Richards was representing the family of the late Ron Hill who sadly died in 2021, aged 82.
Hill, the 1970 Boston Marathon winner and a three-time world record-breaker (10 miles, 15 miles and 25km), handed to Coe what is still today the revolutionary silver mesh vest identical to the GBR team twin-coloured hooped top which Hill wore at the Munich 1972 Olympic Games where he finished sixth.
Lewis – Sydney 2000
The 2000 Olympic heptathlon gold medallist Denise Lewis was the next champion called up to donate to the museum. Lewis brought her bodysuit and bib number which she wore at those Olympic Games, where she struck gold with a total of 6584.
Lewis lined up for the final event, the 800m, with her lower left leg bandaged, due to an achilles injury. Digging deep over those two laps, Lewis won the gold by 53 points. Earlier that year, Lewis had set a lifetime best of 6831 in Talence, France.
McKean – Barcelona 1989
Tom McKean stormed to the 1993 world indoor 800m title, having become European champion both indoors and out three years earlier. Significantly, the former title was won in Glasgow’s Kelvin Hall.
McKean, who had attended the opening of the MOWA Glasgow exhibition a month earlier (2 February), was at the ceremony to donate the GBR uniform which he wore when winning the 800m at the 1989 World Cup of Athletics in Barcelona, where he was a teammate with Coe.
The audience at the MOWA exhibition ceremony in Glasgow
May – Helsinki 2005
Following the first four British donors, an Italian two-time world long jump champion who hailed from the British Isles was the next to be presented. Fiona May, the 1997 world indoor long jump champion, generously donated her Italian team tracksuit top from her last World Championships, which were in Helsinki in 2005.
May was in Glasgow to support her daughter Larissa Iapichino, who equalled May’s national indoor record in 2023 when long jumping 6.91m for a world U20 indoor record. Iapichino finished sixth at the World Indoor Championships in Glasgow.
Murray-Mooney – Toronto 1993
Four weeks ago, Yvonne Murray-Mooney joined McKean at the exhibition’s opening ceremony and since then her winning spikes from the 3000m at the 1993 World Indoor Championships have been on display in the St Enoch Centre
At the ceremony, Murray-Mooney permanently donated her shoes which are personalised on the heels with ‘YM 3000’ to the MOWA. In the Toronto race, she broke away after 1000m and won by 10 seconds, which still stands as the biggest winning margin at a World Indoor Championships.
Regis – Rome 1987
The penultimate donor was John Regis, the 1989 world indoor 200m champion. Regis, a two-time world 200m silver medallist outdoors, was a member of the British 4x400m relay team that won gold in Tokyo in 1991, securing his athletics immortality with British fans.
Regis handed over to Coe his 1987 World Championships 200m bronze medal. In a desperately close finish, USA’s Calvin Smith and France’s Gilles Quénéhervé respectively finished in first and second in 20.16, with Regis taking bronze with 20.18.
Wells – Moscow 1980
Allan Wells, the 1980 Olympic 100m champion and roommate of Coe at those Games, was the final donor. Wells, like McKean and Murray-Mooney, was in Glasgow a month earlier for the opening of the exhibition. Wells presented Coe with his Moscow running spikes and one of his singlets from those Olympics during which he also took the 200m silver medal.
In Cologne, two weeks after the Olympics, Wells beat the best USA sprinters who had boycotted the Games. In 1981, Wells again re-enforced this global sprinting stature by winning the IAAF Golden Sprints and IAAF World Cup races.
Induction to MOWA
All the eight donations will be photographed in the round in glorious 360 degrees and will be inducted into the MOWA’s online 3D museum platform before the end of the year. In the meantime, the Olympic items of Lewis and Wells go on public show in Paris during the Olympic fortnight.
World Athletics Heritage