By David Martin, PA Sport

Ask Lynn 'The Leap' Davies and he will candidly tell you he won the 1964 Olympic Games long jump title four years earlier than he intended.

Although coming on leaps and bounds that year, never in his wildest dreams did the Welshman believe he would stop America's Ralph Boston from retaining his title.

Boston arrived in Tokyo having just set a world record jump of 8.34 metres to win the United States trials.

Rather than the sun shining on the 22-year-old Bridgend-born jumper, it was probably the harsh weather conditions which assisted Davies to his tremendous victory.

With the wind blowing in their faces and the temperature constantly below 15 degrees, the competitors were further hindered with puddles of water lying at several points on the cinder run-up which were not conducive to world class long jumping.

Boston and Igor Ter-Ovanesyan, who preceded the American as world record holder, were suffering immensely from the freezing cold. Although after four rounds the American led his great Soviet rival by eight centimetres with a clearance of 7.88m.

But in the next round Davies totally transformed the top three positions.

Already knowing his fairy godmother had smiled upon him when, in the morning's qualifying round he only just made the final with his last attempt of 7.78m, Davies realised time was against him but produced the leap of his lifetime.

Defying the horrendous conditions Davies, finding from somewhere the biggest jump of his career, soared through the air to land 8.07 metres ahead of the board to jump into gold medal position.

The pressure was now totally on his two great rivals.

Ter-Ovanesyan almost immediately replied with 7.99m, while in the sixth and final round Boston hammered down the runway as if his life and not just the gold medal depended upon it.

He landed alarmingly close to the Welshman's mark.

Davies chewed on his lip, anxiously awaiting the judges to measure the world record holder's final attempt.

Then his face lit up as the figure 8.03 flashed upon the adjacent scoreboard. The gold medal was his.