Recently, this column looked back on the moment that Carl Lewis won his fourth gold medal of the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.

Not only did the American double up in the men's 100m and 200m, he also triumphed in the long jump and 4x100m. Only Jesse Owens at the 1936 Games had previously achieved that feat.

Despite all that success in such a short period of time, it was 24 years ago today at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo that Lewis is regarded by many to have produced his best ever performance.

Aged 30, Lewis had advanced through to the final of the men's 100m with victories in the heats and semi-finals. But, in Jamaica's Raymond Stewart and compatriot Leroy Burrell, the final would put Lewis up against two men that had been ranked the number one sprinter in the world over the previous 12 months.

Not only that, in 1991 Burrell had run 9.90s in New York to take Lewis's world record over 100m, which in turn made him the favourite for this race.

A Burrell victory certainly looked likely when he was first out of the blocks in Japan, while Lewis was the slowest to rise.

However, from a seemingly hopeless position, Lewis appeared to summon every ounce of power within his body to move through the field during the final 50m, before he pipped Burrell to first place virtually on the line.

In doing so, Lewis had won the title for a third time in a row after Helsinki and Rome, but he had also regained the world record in a time of 9.86s.

It was actually a race that is still regarded as one of the best of all time, with six of the eight competitors running under 10s.

Result of men's 100m at Toyko 1991
1. Carl Lewis (9.86)
2. Leroy Burrell (9.88)
3. Dennis Mitchell (9.91)
4. Linford Christie (9.92)
5. Frankie Fredericks (9.95)
6. Raymond Stewart (9.96)
7. Robson Caetano da Silva (10.12)
8. Bruny Surin (10.14)