Sporting Witness

It was supposed to be a friendly match between Egyptian giants Zamalek and Czechoslovakian side Dukla Prague, but before the game started there was a deadly crush in the crowds.

The day before the game on 17 February 1974, the venue had been changed from the larger Cairo Stadium to Zamalek's home ground.

It was reported that 48 people died and 47 were injured in a stampede. Josephine McDermott hears from retired Egyptian international player and Zamalek winger Mahmoud Al Khawaga who was there.

Production and interpretation from Riham Eldeeb in Cairo.

(Photo: Zamalek Stadium on the day of the disaster)

In 1996, South Africa won the Africa Cup of Nations, bringing sporting joy to a country still recovering from Apartheid.

It was the Bafana Bafana team's first victory at an international football tournament.

In 2015, two members of the multi-racial side, Phil Masinga and Mark Fish, spoke to Will Yates.

A Whistledown production for BBC World Service.

(Photo: South Africa captain Neil Tovey lifts the Africa Cup of Nations. Credit: Gallo Images/Getty Images)

In 1984, Lamine Gueye of Senegal became the first black African skier to take part in the Winter Olympics.

The grandson of a prominent Senegalese politician, Gueye founded his country's ski federation and for a long time was the only member.

In 2017, he spoke to Tayo Popoola.

A Whistledown Production for BBC World Service.

(Photo: Lamine at the 1996 World Championships. Credit: Jerome Prevost/TempSport/Corbis/VCG/Getty)

Lin Dan has dominated badminton for several decades. The Chinese star nicknamed 'Super Dan' clinched the sport's Super Grand Slam - winning 9 major titles by the age of 28 and the first player to achieve the feat.

But it was his Olympic Games Gold medals which are particularly special to him. He speaks to Wendy Tang about how he got to be a world great. This is a Made Manchester Production for the BBC World Service.

(Photo: Lin Dan competing in the Australian Badminton Open in 2017. Credit: Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)

The Elfstedentocht is one of the toughest sporting events there is. It’s an ice skating race around the lakes and canals of the northern Dutch province of Friesland – and it can only take place when it is particularly cold.

The last one was in 1997, but the most notorious happened back in January 1963, when only 69 of the 10,000 skaters made it to the end of the 200 km course. The rest were stopped by the appalling weather conditions.

One of the few to complete the race was the then 24-year-old skater Leffert Oldenkamp. He tells Matthew Kenyon about the extreme race.

(Photo: Competitors in the 1963 Elfstedentocht. Credit: Eric Koch/Dutch National Archive)

In 2000, Sven-Goran Eriksson got the job as manager of England’s men’s football team. He was the first non-English person to do the job.

Some in England were sceptical about an overseas coach when Sven moved from his post at Lazio in Italy to succeed Kevin Keegan as England boss.

Sven tells Uma Doraiswamy about the media’s reaction to this sporting first, his quest to understand the Liverpudlian accent of some of his new players and how it felt to go out of tournaments on penalties.

The Swede led England to the quarter-finals of the 2002 and 2006 World Cup and 2004 Euros.

He spoke to Sporting Witness a few days ago, on the day he told the world that having been diagnosed with cancer he has, at best, a year to live.

(Photo: England coach Sven Goran Eriksson at the 2002 World Cup. Credit: Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images)

In the 2004 Athens Olympics, Brazilian Vanderlei de Lima was leading the Men’s Marathon with six kilometres to go. What happened next shocked the millions of fans watching and propelled Vanderlei into becoming a universal role model for sportsmanship.

He relives those last kilometres with Uma Doraiswamy.

(Photo: Vanderlei de Lima being attacked by Cornelius Horan. Credit: Jiro Mochizuki/ AFP via Getty Images)

In 1970, Yuichiro Miura became the first man to ski on Mount Everest, starting from the height of the ‘death zone’, an elevation where there isn't enough oxygen to survive for long. His daring ski run saw him reach a speed of 160 kilometres per hour, before he crashed into a boulder and narrowly avoided falling into a crevasse.

Not satisfied with this achievement, he also became the oldest person to climb the mountain when he was 80 years old.

He spoke to Emily Uchida Finch about his experiences on Mount Everest. This is a Whistledown production for the BBC World Service.

(Photo: Yuichiro Miura at the summit of Mount Everest in 2013. Credit: Miura Dolphins)

Caster Semenya was just 18-years-old when she won gold in the 800 metres at the 2009 World Championships in Berlin.

Her victory was controversial because the South African runner was facing questions over her gender. So much so, that she was made to take a gender test on the eve of the final.

The test revealed that the teenager had been born with internal testes and no womb. It meant she had higher levels of testosterone; a hormone that increases muscle mass and strength.

She has been speaking to Matt Pintus after the launch of her memoir, The Race to Be Myself.

(Photo: Caster Semenya at the 2009 World Championships in Berlin. Credit: Getty Images)

In 2003, arguably one of the greatest tennis players of all time, Roger Federer won the Wimbledon Men’s title.

Aged just 21, it was his first major win and was the start of a record eight men’s single titles at the championships. Uma Doraiswamy goes through the BBC and Wimbledon archives where the Swiss champion looks back on his momentous win.

(Photo: Roger Federer holds the trophy after his victory over Mark Philippoussis in the Men's Singles Final at the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championships on July 6, 2003 at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, in Wimbledon. Credit: Getty Images)