When Michael Johnson stepped into the starting blocks for the men’s 400 metres final at the World Athletics Championships in Seville 25 years ago, he was surrounded by more than just the familiar golden glow.

The gold-clad spike running shoes with which the Dallas native achieved his famous double victory over 200 m and 400 m at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta were fitted with dark blue parachute nylon.

Judging by his form in the semi-finals of the 1999 World Championships, the Texan superman was ready to fly around the Estadio Olimpico track. After three years of battling injuries, three weeks before his 32nd birthday, Johnson had clocked a time of 43.95 seconds, slowing to a relative running pace in the final 100 meters.

Finally, the world record in the one-lap race – the 43.29 seconds set by fellow countryman Harry “Butch” Reynolds in Zurich in 1988 – seemed to be within reach for the US golden boy.

“I think I have it in me,” Johnson admitted after his semi-final. “I’ve never run this fast and waited this long. I know I’m in shape and can run faster than 43.29. I just need to make sure I don’t make any big mistakes.”

Johnson’s personal best was 43.39, his winning time when he won his second of three 400 m world championship titles to date in Gothenburg in 1995.

Having also won two gold medals in the 200m and held the 200m world record – which he set with a breathtaking time of 19.32 seconds in the final in Atlanta – the intelligent marketing graduate could already lay claim to being the greatest long-distance sprinter of all time.

Johnson, however, wanted to seal his historic running legacy with the 400-meter world record.

“I was actually healthy”

Both he and his coach Clyde Hart – his shining example since the beginning of his time at Baylor University in Waco – had recognized the final in Seville as the ideal platform.

“Since the beginning of the 1999 season, our focus has been on reaching the final and breaking the world record there,” Johnson reflected in the “One Moment in Time” series for World Athletics.

“Although I had been struggling with injuries since 1996, I was actually healthy again at that point. And 1999 was to be the year in which I would aim for the 400-meter world record.

“I wanted to end my career after the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney and did not want to go into this final season with the pressure of having to win a gold medal and break a world record.”

“The key: reaching race pace after 60 m”

Johnson wasn’t thrilled about completing four laps of 400m and taking a rest day between the semifinals and the final, but the program gave him the opportunity to refine his plan of attack on Reynolds’ record.

Michael Johnson leads the 400 m at the 1999 World Championships in Seville (© Getty Images)

“From all our analysis over the past few years – since I got close to the world record – we knew we had to figure out how to make up the extra time,” Johnson reflected.

“The world record was 43.29. My personal best was 43.39. You have to make up a tenth of a second somewhere.”

“We found it in the first part of the race. We knew the key to breaking the world record was to get to 60m as quickly as possible – that is, to reach race pace after 60m.”

By the quarterfinals, Johnson had hit his stride and his trademark upright stride felt as smooth as it had in Atlanta. “I was able to complete the races much easier and more naturally,” he said.

“I knew I could break the world record in the semifinals by running 43.95 slower. I ran at world record pace. I knew it would work.”

Johnson was drawn into lane 5 at the Estadio Olimpico on the evening of August 26. Directly behind him was Alejandro Cardenas, a notoriously fast starter.

Although the Mexican with the headband initially partially made up for his staggering, Johnson stepped up a gear quicker than usual.

He passed the 100m in 11.10 and the 200m in 21.22, reached the 300m in 31.66 and majestically maintained his form on the home straight by covering the final 100m in 11.52.

Johnson’s winning time was 43.18, beating the world record by 0.11.

“Now everything was complete”

“He did it at least,” declared the late, great athletics expert Peter Matthews in his commentary for the international television broadcast. “We have waited years for this time from this man.”

The audience in Seville congratulates Michael Johnson (© Allsport)

“Here in Seville he won his fourth world title in the 400m and broke the eleven-year-old world record. This secures his place in the history books.”

That was actually the case.

Johnson finished his career with eight gold medals at World Championships and four at Olympic Games – and as the first holder of the men’s 200 m and 400 m world records since Tommie Smith.

“I was happy when I crossed the finish line and also relieved,” said the Texan with the Midas touch about that night in Seville, which now took place a quarter of a century ago.

“The coach and I both thought I could stay under 43 seconds, but in the end it was closer than we thought. I only beat the record by 0.11 seconds.

“But I was satisfied. I always wanted the 400-meter world record. Now everything was perfect.”

Simon Turnbull for World Athletics Heritage