Breaking a world record instantly elevates an athlete into the category of sporting greats, but setting one that lasts for 30 years puts you in an exclusive tier of legends.
When Jonathan Edwards leapt into the history books and became the first person to pass 18m in the triple jump in 1995, Athletics Weekly’s headline read: ‘How much further can this man jump?’
It turned out he could not jump any further than the 18.29m he set at the World Championships in Gothenburg that summer - but nor could anyone else.
Only seven men have surpassed the 18m mark since the moment Edwards describes as the highlight of his career, and no one has beaten the record he set all those years ago.
Edwards earned his first piece of athletics silverware in 1990 when he claimed Commonwealth Games silver at 24 years old.
It was the first sign of a talent that would come into full blossom five years later when he would take Sweden, and the sporting world, by storm.
But his annus mirabilis did not begin in the historic setting of the Ullevi Stadium or even in the French surrounds of the Stadium Lille-Metropole. Instead, it was in Loughborough that Edwards began quite literally inching his way into the history books.
In June, he set a new British record in the East Midlands, surpassing the previous distance by just one centimetre with a jump of 17.58m which set expectations low for his European hopes.
But just two weeks later, Edwards headed to Lille for the European Cup and surpass all expectations, not just of himself but of what was possible in the triple jump.
In his second jump, he flew past the measuring board on the side of the pit to jump 18.43m, leading the BBC commentator to exclaim: “Oh my goodness, that is huge. That has got to be over 18 metres!”
While assisted by a wind speed of 2.4m/s that meant the distance could not stand as a world record, he had set new parameters for what was possible in the triple jump.
“I'll never have a day like that again. I almost redefined the event there, and it was a scary feeling,” Edwards told European Athletics in 2016.
“Afterwards, I was very disappointed. I think my 18.43m was worth between 18.20m and 18.30m legal. It was certainly worth more than [Wille Banks’ 10-year-old world record of] 17.97m.”
But he would not have to live with the disappointment for very long.
On August 7, in the World Championships final in Gothenburg, he became the first man to pass 18m in his first jump, smashing the barrier with a distance of 18.16m.
And he did not stop there, as his second jump surpassed the marker significant to his American rivals of 60ft at 18.29m to clinch the world title and set a record that has not been broken in the 30 years since.
“It's a good record. I think if you look at the technique of triple jumpers, I jumped a little bit differently,” he told Eurosport.
“I think I was faster, and I kept that speed through the jump, and my technique and my rhythm was very good. But yeah, it's crazy. It's lasted so long.
“I can remember when I broke the record, I don't think anybody was expecting me to be the person to jump 18 metres, to jump 60 feet.
“And they all looked at me and thought, ‘Well, he doesn't look that impressive. And if he can do it, then we can all do it.’ But it didn't quite turn out like that.”
The performance instantly catapulted Edwards to sporting greatness and into the hearts of the British public.
He went on to win the men’s European and World Athlete of the Year in 1995 and the BBC Sports Personality of the Year.
It was a remarkable feat that makes Edwards the only British athlete to currently hold a world record in an Olympic athletics event.
Edwards went on to have a glittering career and finally secured an elusive Olympic gold for Team GB at Sydney 2000.
“I think I get more pleasure from the world record,” he reflected. “But if you ask anybody, what's the best thing you can do as an athlete? They say, win the Olympic Games. So to do that as a world record holder was a very special moment.”