Derek Redmond, Great Britain 400m Athlete
What was the best moment of your career?
Winning the gold medal in the men’s 4x400m relay at the world championships in Tokyo in 1991. It was us against the Americans and we took a big gamble the night before the race by changing the order in which we would run. Originally it was going to be myself, then Kriss Akabusi, John Regis and Roger Black as the anchor but Kriss instigated the move to change the order so that Roger ran first, myself second, then John and then Kriss. We had never run in that order before — even in training. We were all happy with the gamble. Roger had finished second to Antonio Pettigrew in the individual 400m so was the second fastest in the world. Generally, you have your fastest runner last but we wanted to take the early lead and see what the Americans had in them. If the gamble didn’t come off we thought we would at least finish second because there was a big gap between us and the rest. But it paid off. We didn’t win by much but it was a very sweet victory.
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Hat-trick
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Noun. The feat of registering three positive outcomes in a sporting event. Although the most famous hat-trick in English sport belongs to footballer Sir Geoff Hurst, the phrase has its origins in cricket and first came into use more than 150 years ago. In 1858, HH Stephenson took three wickets in three balls for an All-England XI at the Hyde Park ground, Sheffield. A collection was held and Stephenson was presented with a hat bought with the proceeds. An alternative interpretation is that the feat entitled a professional to pass his cap – or hat – around for a collection. The phrase was first used in print in The Sportsman in 1878 and had spread to football by the beginning of the 20th century. Striker Michael Owen netted a memorable hat-trick against Germany in September 2001 (the game when even Emile Heskey scored). How England could do with another terrific treble when the two countries meet in Bloemfontein this afternoon.
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1. England 2010
Disciplinarian Fabio Capello lets the side off the leash the night before Slovenia and at last they win
2. Newcastle United 2009
With their season careering off course, Joe Kinnear took his team go-karting. It didn’t work
3. Fiji 2008
Waisale Serevi took his Sevens side to a remote jungle for pre-season bonding
4. Queensland Reds 2009
After a gruelling pre-season, the Aussie side cooled off with a team trip to Wet N’ Wild
5. England 1999
Clive Woodward used the Royal Marines to bond his players and weed out the ‘energy sappers’