What was invented in 1949

At the Olympic Games in Munich, a then unknown year-old Ugandan athlete, John Akii-Bua, surprised the world by becoming the first man to run the m hurdles in under 48 seconds. In the process, he beat the much-fancied David Emery of Britain, the then Olympic champion, into third place. But it was not all sweetness from then on.

The vicissitudes of Akii-Bua&#;s life have been captured in a documentary film shown recently in Uganda.

In a gripping tale about his life and sporting achievements, Uganda’s greatest athlete, John Akii-Bua recalls in his unpublished memoirs a sleepless night before his historic Munich Olympics triumph in the m hurdles, haunted by visions of the then defending Olympic champion and record holder, Britain’s David Hemery, winning.

Akii-Bua reveals in his handwritten notes upon which a minute documentary film entitled, “The John Akii-Bua Story: An African Tragedy” is based, that on the night before his Olympic victory, he drank a whole bottle of champagne, p