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The first ever World Athletics Championships held in 1983 also marked
the beginning of another major international event- the era of Carl
Lewis. Befitting the nation whose national sport is athletics it was
Finland who staged the twin inauguration. It was well known that the man
from Birmingham, Alabama was an international superstar in the making
and at the Helsinki championships he lived up to his super-star billing.
Here was a man en- route to becoming a sporting legend. Some saw his
three gold medals as a dress rehearsal for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic
Games. He entered the history books by becoming the first ever world
100m. champion as he led home a trio of U.S. sprinters, winning in
10.07sec. ahead of Calvin Smith(10.21sec.) and Emmit King(10.24sec.).(shown above on his lap of honour)
Great Britain's Olympic Champion Allan Wells was fourth in 10.27sec.
In
spite of running a lifetime best of 19.75sec. for the distance that
year Carl chose not to run in the 200m. which Smith won in 20.14sec.
However, he did contest the long jump and again it was a 1-2-3 for the
Americans, Lewis won with a jump of 8.55m. Jason Grimes was second with
8.29m. and Mike Conley was third with 8.12m. This left him with the
finale, the 4x100m. relay in which he partnered Calvin Smith, Sam Grady
and Ron Brown. It proved to be a fitting climax as he anchored the
quartet to a new world record of 37.86sec. (George Herringshaw)
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