Seb Coe wins 1500m in Los Angeles 1984 Olympics
" Tomorrow is another day, and there
will be another battle ! "
( Seb Coe, few minutes after
a 2 place in 800m Olympic Games final in Moscow 1980 )
" Tomorrow is another day, and there
will be another battle ! "
( Seb Coe, few minutes after
a 2 place in 800m Olympic Games final in Moscow 1980 )
SEBASTIAN NEWBOLD COE (b. Sept. 29, 1956, London,
England), British athlete who won four Olympic medals and set eight world
records in middle-distance running. His great rivalry with fellows Briton
Steve Ovett and Steve Cram dominated middle-distance racing for much of
the 1980s.
His only coach has always been his father Peter,
who cleverly built his son's potential with a lot of technical and weights
work, understanding that 800-1500m distances would more and more require
speed; especially in a not perfect body prototype like young Sebastian's
( 1.76 x 56 kg ), surely not as gifted by God as the Cuban Alberto Juantorena.
Later results proved that he was able to run 400m in 46'' 87''' and 5000m
well under 14'00'' with not specific training, as well as to win world
class road 8k competitions like the Italian "La Scarpa d'Oro", beating
with his final rush all the top distance runners of the moment.
Coe studied economics and social history at Loughborough
University and won his first major race in 1977, an 800-metre event at
the European indoor championships in San Sebastián, Spain. He first
ran against Ovett in Prague in 1978 in an 800-metre race that neither won.
The next year in Oslo, Norway, Coe set his first world records, in 800-metre
and mile races. At the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow, the graceful Coe was
favoured in the 800-metre race, and the powerful Ovett was favoured in
the 1,500-metre race, an event in which he and Coe shared the world record.
They met each other very seldom, practically only in the biggest competitions.
Ovett was a European Championship medalist already in 1974 and Coe would
be a World Cup medalist still in 1989. In 1980 both of the Britons were
at their best. That was the year of the games of the 22nd Olympiad in Moscow,
Soviet Union.
Both runners had made new World Record times
just before the games; Ovett in 1500 meters and the mile - Coe in 1000
meters. In 800 meters Coe was the favourite, it was his best distance,
the one that he thought he must win. However, Coe made some stupid mistakes
during the race and was forced to cross the finish line only second. Watching
Ovett win the gold medal at his best event must have felt like hell for
Coe. Someone asked him after the competition if he felt he had missed an
unique chance and he replied : " Tomorrow is another day, and there will
be another battle ! "
So Sebastian decided to compensate the accident
with some interest. He planned his tactics for the 1500 meter final well
in advance and decided to stick to it. There was nothing that could force
him to lose that title - except Steve Ovett, and everyone knew it. Ovett
was considered unbeatable in that distance those times. But it appeared
that winning the 800 meters had took the sharpness out of Ovett. He didn't
have much left in the last day of the games when the final of the 1500
meters took place. Surprisingly he lost to East Germany's Jürgen Straub
and got only the bronze medal. Sebastian Coe - of course - was fastest
in the race, with his unforgettable kick at 100m to go; he gained the title
of the best middle distance runner of the games. Winning this one was probably
the greatest moment in Coe's career.
Coe set world records in the 800- and 1,000-metre
races in 1981, the year his rivalry with Ovett reached a climax.His world
record of 1'41'72''' , and remained unbeaten since August 1997, one of
the toughest world record for track and field. He beat Ovett's mile record,
running it in 3 min 48.53 sec on August 19; only a week later Ovett set
another mile record, which was then shattered by Coe with a 3 min 47.33
sec run on August 28. Illness limited Coe's racing in the next two years,
but he rebounded strongly to win again. Still unbeaten is his 1000m record
of 2' 12'' 18''' in Oslo 1981.
In the Los Angeles 1984 Olympics, Sebastian Coe
defended his championship from the Moscow Games, and as he apparently was
selected without appearing very fit, he was blamed and criticized by the
British press for depriving win a medal other stronger British runners
of the chances of winning a medal.
He hid in the heats of 800m, conquering a silver
medal which was unexpected for most people; only the marvellous shape and
power of theBrazilian Joachim Cruz could beat him.
Gold came again from his hated race, 1500m.
Seb Coe wins 1500m in Moscow 1980 Olympics
For Steve Cram this was instead the first Olympic
final. His lack of experience might have cost him the gold medal, but personally
I don't think so. When Coe pulled his final gear on 200 meters before the
finishing line, Cram could do nothing. It was not a matter of bad strategy,
he just didn't have enough power to keep up with the 800 meter World Record
holder. Steve Ovett - the World Record holder in 3.30,77 - took also part
in the final, but didn't finish because of asthma problems .
Coe's time of 3'32''53'' was the new Olympic
record, very very fast for an Olympic final, and Cram was left about 8
meters behind. However, he clearly was the second best in the world that
day. Coe never came back to run in an Olympic final, but Cram tried again
four years later, finishing fourth. Seb won the 800-metre European championship
in 1986, but illness hampered the late years of his career, and he was
not chosen to participate in the 1988 Olympic Games.
May be British selectors, were wrong, because
only 20 days after Olympics, Seb set his p.b.in the Italian meeting of
Rieti, with 3' 29'' 77''', again a personal best .....
In the late 80s he beat also Cram in a revival
of the "Certamen of Caius", the all out one lap race inside the court of
Cambridge College, dressed like a 1920 runner, a race of about 380m with
sharp corners and no spikes in 47''; the challenge is to complete one lap
of the court before the final bell of the clock showing 12.00 am ( ...
watch the "Chatriots of fire" movie to remember...), a very tough effort
as only 6 people in 200 years managed to do that (the most famous were
Coe, Cram and the Paris 1924 Olympic100m winner Harold Abrahams, plus 3
other almost unknown students).
In 1992 he was elected a Conservative member
of British Parliament.
He also finished in 1994 a marathon in 2h48'',
just to feel once in a lifetime the "taste" of that distance, without too
much training and not arriving dead tired.
I'll always remember him as one of the most elegant
and elastic runners of all times, with an extraordinary killer instinct,
capable of taking out all the best of himself in the most important and
difficult circumnstances.
Thank you, Sir Seb !
Here are some of his accomplishments:
800m indoor
1'46''81 1981
Wr (Cosford)
800m indoor
1'44''91 1983
Wr (Oslo)
1000m indoor 2'18''58
1983 Wr (Cosford)
3000m indoor 7'54''32
1986
-
“The great thing about athletics is that it’s
like poker sometimes:
you know what’s in your hand and it may be
a load of rubbish,
but you’ve got to keep up the front.”
Sebastian Coe
my Carl
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