In the next part of our countdown to Amsterdam, we look at an amazing performance from the European Athletics Championships of 1998.
Sonia O’Sullivan holds a unique place in the records of the European Athletics Championships as the only woman to have completed the 5000m/10,000m double.
But progress in the sport gave her an opportunity for another piece of history-making.
The 1998 championships in Budapest was the first occasion the women’s 5000m was staged and at 28, Ireland's O’Sullivan arrived as the last-ever women’s European 3000m champion, the event being replaced by this longer distance.
She had already had quite a year by winning double gold (4km/8km) at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Marrakesh five months earlier and now she made her way to the top podium twice more again.
The Nepstadion in the Hungarian capital staged the 17th European Athletics Championships between August 18-23 and on the second evening, the crowd were treated to the first part of two brilliant performances in the final of the 10,000m.
Great Britain’s Paula Radcliffe made the running and with five laps to go, she led from Portugal’s Fernando Ribeiro, the defending champion, with O’Sullivan poised on the outside of a pack of six that included Romania’s Lidia Simon, the 1996 Olympic and 1995 world champion, and Spain’s Julia Vaquero.
With 600m to go, Radcliffe still had the advantage from Ribeiro and O’Sullivan, with the Irishwoman ready to make her mark.
They reached the bell at 30:26.18, and with 300m to go Ribeiro took over but it was not for long.
O’Sullivan was just cruising, biding her time and with 160m left, as legendary BBC commentator David Coleman said: 'There goes O’Sullivan and in two or three strides it is all over.'
With a devastating burst of speed, she charged away and the rest could not respond.
It was distance running to perfection as she won by over three seconds in 31:29.33 from Ribeiro and Simon.
One down, one to go.
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The first-ever women’s 5000m was held on the final afternoon and among the field was the legendary Romanian Gabriela Szabo, who had replaced O’Sullivan as world champion in Athens the previous summer.
It was some race, and some finish.
Not long after the bell, Szabo began a long sprint for glory, closely challenged by O’Sullivan and Spain’s Marta Dominquez.
Had she gone too early?
The answer to that question came on the home turn and it was ‘yes’, as O’Sullivan came soaring around the outside to power away in sensational style.
A second gold, won in 15:06.50, from Szabo, and a second beaming smile as she raised her arms in celebration.
It was a week in Hungary that the record books can never take away.
BUDAPEST 1998 EUROPEAN ATHLETICS CHAMPIONSHIPS
Women’s 10,000m Final (19 August)
1. Sonia O’Sullivan (IRL) 31:29.33
2. Fernanda Ribeiro (POR) 31:32.42
3. Lidia Simon (ROU) 31:32.64
Women’s 5000m Final (23 August)
1. Sonia O’Sullivan (IRL) 15:06.50
2. Gabriela Szabo (ROU) 15:08.31
3. Marta Dominguez (ESP) 15:10.54.