Thompson (pictured top), who scored a world record of 8,847 points to beat Jurgen Hingsen  of West Germany, successfully defended the title he had won at the 1980 Moscow Games.

In second place was Kelly Holmes' emotional achievement in earning an Olympic gold medal in the 800 metres at the 2004 Athens Olympics, bringing a career so often blighted by injury to a triumphant conclusion and famously (pictured below) crossing the line with a look of astonished joy on her face.

Holmes added 1500m gold in Athens, an achievement which also gave her third place in the online survey – and made her, overall, the recipient of the most votes.

The poll, which featured every gold medal-winning performance in the post-War era, was launched last week and asked athletics fans across the UK to vote on which moment held the most significance for them.


Next most popular was the 400m hurdles gold medal won in a world record time of 48.12sec by David Hemery at Mexico City in 1968.

Other strong performers in the poll included Mary Peters' 1972 pentathlon win, Don Thompson's 50 kilometres walk victory from 1960 and Ann Packer's ground-breaking 1964 800m triumph.

The poll was part of UKA's celebrations of 100 days to go until the London Olympic Games.

As well as confirming that UKA will be paying for the pair of tickets that athletes can access for each session of the Olympic Games, the body will be giving away a prize every half hour to fans that follow on Twitter or online. 

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