At 60m, Nelli Cooman is a former indoor world record holder, running 7:00 seconds in 1986. It was the first time that indoor times were considered official records.

Born in Suriname, she moved to the Netherlands aged eight. She was initially a football player, until her sprinting talents were discovered in high school. She became the first Dutch athlete to get sponsorship and go full time, becoming a superstar in the 1980s winning five European Indoor titles in a row.

Part of her success is down to her coach who was with her from the start, and now coaches her daughter. She tells Matthew Kenyon how she became an indoor track specialist.

Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive and testimony. Sporting Witness is for those fascinated by sporting history. We take you to the events that have shaped the sports world through the eyes of the people who were there. For nine minutes, you become a fan in the stands as we take you back in time to examine memorable victories and agonising defeats from all over the world. You’ll hear from people who have achieved sporting immortality, or those who were there as incredible sporting moments unfolded.

Recent episodes explore the forgotten football Women’s World Cup, the plasterer who fought a boxing legend, international football’s biggest ever beating and the man who swam the Amazon river. We look at the lives of some of the most famous F1 drivers, tennis players and athletes as well as people who’ve had ground-breaking impact in their chosen sporting field, including: the most decorated Paralympian, the woman who was the number 1 squash player in the world for nine years, and the first figure skater to wear a hijab. You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, such as the tennis player who escaped the Nazis, how a man finally beat a horse in a race, and how the FIFA computer game was created.

(Photo: Nelli Cooman. Credit: Gray Mortimore/Allsport via Getty Images)