Remember '74

Then we got round to the bell, and Arthur Lydiard's words went through my head: 'leave your run as late as possible'.

– Dick Tayler on the final lap of his 10,000m race

The second [reason, along with a rushed warm up] was due to lack of international experience, I was not used to lifting in an auditorium with a high ceiling with television lights shining down causing us to sweat rather incredibly. So I managed to get the weight up, but the two factors combined to cause me to not be able to hold it steady. So I staggered all over the stage, and reached the edge of the stage, and just hung on …

– Weightlifter Graham May on the moments before the face-plant. (He ultimately went on to win gold.)

When Bayi ran away, it was something that I was expecting him to do because I’d seen him run in Europe. It was the first time that I’d actually run against Filbert Bayi over 1,500m so it was something I really wasn’t used to as an athlete, though I’d seen him do it against other opposition. In the past when he’d got it wrong he came back to the rest of the field and usually tired up in the last 120. But on this particular day, in 1974 he got it right.

– John Walker on his famous duel with Bayi when both broke the existing world records.

What a man! Filbert Bayi of Tanzania. He runs in front and he stays in front all the way.

– Keith Quinn, commentating on the 1,500m race