On this day: Born April 15, 1957: Evelyn Ashford, American sprinter

FILE PHOTO: Born on April 15, 1957: Evelyn Ashford, American Athlete (L to R) USA's Evelyn Ashford, Sheila Echols and Alice Brown, three of the USA's 4x100 metres relay team, watch a video replay of the race finish after their gold medal win October 1, 1988 in Seoul. The fourth team member, not pictured, is Florence Griffith Joyner. REUTERS/Rick Wilking/File Photo

(Reuters) - On a warm July 1983 day in the Colorado mountains, a slender American woman literally reached the peak of female sprinting when she smashed the women's 100 metres world record that German athletes had owned for a decade.

Evelyn Ashford had beaten Marlies Gohr (100m) and Marita Koch (200m) in the 1979 World Cup of Athletics and now she had Gohr's 100 metres world record.