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John Regis had experienced difficulty during 1991 in reproducing the
form which had seen him win a gold medal in the 200m, and a bronze in
the 100m, at the 1990 European Championships. However, although that
had been the case in individual competition, it had been a different
story in relay events, where, at 1991 World Championships Regis had
repeated the feat he performed at the European Championships of winning
medals in both the 4 x 100m and 4 x 400m relays. It seemed that his
fortunes were due to change at the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona,
where Regis produced a new personal best of 20.09sec, when finishing
second in his semi-final of the 200m, equalling Linford Christie's UK
national record.
Unfortunately, John was unable to repeat that form in
the final the following day, finishing 6th in a time of 20.55sec.
However, once again John was more successful in the relays, held on the
last day of competition. John was a member of Great Britain's 4 x 100m
relay team which finished fourth, and then he went one better in the 4 x
400m relay final, anchoring Great Britain to a bronze medal finish.
The following year, Regis peaked at the right time of the season, at the
World Championships in Stuttgart, producing his seasonal best over 200m
to that point in time of 20.16sec when finishing third in his
semi-final on 19 August (see photo above). In the final the next
day, Regis led the field past the 150m mark, before succumbing to
Frankie Fredericks (Namibia) in the final stages. John's silver medal
winning time was a new UK record of 19.94sec. He picked up another
silver medal in the 4 x 100m relay, running the third leg for the Great
Britain foursome which set a new national record of 37.77sec. (Ron
Casey)
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