Javelin is the unofficial national sport of Finland, and with Tiina Lillak hailing from Helsinki the stage seemed set for her to take gold at the inaugural World Championships.
Britain's Fatima Whitbread had other ideas. With a throw of 69.14m she was leading with only one throw to go in the competition. But that attempt belonged to Lillak.
Whitbread stood on the running track, barely able to watch, hand on forehead. Lillak gathered herself, the crowd roared and the javelin flew out to 70.82m.
Lillak sprinted around the track with undisguised joy, arms upraised like a footballer, as the spectators went mad. Whitbread's face collapsed. She ran to her mother Margaret in the crowd and stood there in her arms, crying her eyes out.
But there was a happy ending for Fatima - four years later she won gold in Rome.
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