Monday, 15 October 2018:
No less a judge than Sir Roger Bannister called it the finest tactically-judged race he had ever witnessed.
Athletics praise doesn't come any higher than that.
It's now 50 years to the day since Ralph Doubell scorched to victory in the men's 800m at the Mexico City Olympics, equalling the world record of one minute 44.4 seconds in the process.
He became only the third Australian man along with Edwin Flack in 1896 and Herb Elliott in 1960 to win an Olympic track title.
Half a century on and that exclusive club still only has three members.
It also took 49 years and nine months before Joseph Deng finally bettered Doubell's national record with a time of 1:44.21 in July this year.
Any way you look at it, Doubell's victory at the 1968 Games has stood the test of time as one of the greatest moments of Australia's proud Olympic history, as noted by the first man to break the four-minute mile.
"Roger Bannister said it was a perfectly-judged race," the 73-year-old Doubell told AAP.
"I thought it was pretty good.
"It was exactly the same way that I ran in the heat and the semi-final.
"I only ran one type of race, that was to sit back and kick either at 150 or 100 metres to go.
"(Kenyan front-runner and silver medallist Wilson) Kiprugut also ran one type of race and that was to go flat out and try to run you into the ground."
After starting conservatively rather than risk disqualification for a break, Doubell worked his way through the field before flying past Kiprugut in the home straight to claim the gold.
But it was not until bronze medallist Tom Farrell pointed out the significance of the winning time that Doubell realised he had also equalled the world record.
"I never worried about times," he said.
"In a major race your objective is to win and if it's a fast race you'll run a fast time and if it's a slow race you'll run a slow time.
"But as long as you win, that's the key variable."
That was the crux of the advice he passed on to the 20-year-old Deng, whom Doubell met for the first time last weekend.
"Figure out what your strengths are, how you are going to win, how you're going to run against the competition and be tough enough to say that 'I'm going to win this'," said Doubell.
"He struck me as being pretty smart and if I can help him then I will."
To mark the 50-year anniversary of the gold medal and world record, a book titled 'Ralph Doubell - Do Not Worry, It Is Only Pain' has been released, written by Michael Sharp.
