Winning streaks in sport

26 Jul, 2005

Winning streaks in sport after Lance Armstrong secured his seventh successive victory in the Tour de France on Sunday:
Real Madrid won the first five European Cup finals from 1956-1960 with the streak starting with a 4-3 win over Reims in Paris, followed by a 2-0 victory against Fiorentina at their own Santiago Bernabeu Stadium and then made it three-in-a-row with a 3-2 triumph against AC Milan in Brussels.
In 1959, the streak was extended to four with another win against Reims, this time 2-0, with the fifth arriving in 1960 with their famous 7-3 triumph against Eintracht Frankfurt in front of 134,000 people at Glasgow's Hampden Park.
Germany's Michael Schumacher won five successive Formula One world titles and seven in all. Schumacher won his first two world titles with Benetton in 1994 and 1995 before suffering four fruitless years. But from 2000 he won five successive crowns with Ferrari.
Bjorn Borg rattled off five Wimbledon titles from 1976-1980. America's Pete Sampras won seven All England Club crowns from 1993-2000 but his dream of a title streak was ruined in 1996 when Dutchman Richard Krajicek prevailed over Malivai Washington with Sampras having exited in the quarter-finals.
Muhammad Ali retired with a record of 56 wins and 5 losses and was the only man to win the heavyweight crown three times. Rocky Marciano, the only heavyweight champion to retire undefeated after 49 wins in 49 fights, also held the title as did Larry Holmes, 67 wins and just six defeats, who defended the heavyweight crown 21 times.
Jockey Frankie Dettori rewrote racing's record books at Ascot September 28, 1996 when he won all seven races on the day's card - the Italian's magnificent seven paying odds of 25,095-1.

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