Coe and Ovett Moscow rivalry still resonates

[Fiona]

Gliding through one of Helsinki's handful of international hotels, Sebastian Coe exudes a practised assurance appropriate to the man credited with bringing the 2012 Olympics to London.

At the nearby Olympic stadium another Englishman not far short of his 50th birthday strolls to his position in a television commentary box unrecognised even by the knowledgeable Finnish track fans at the 10th world championships.

Coe, a member of the House of Lords and the only man to win two Olympic 1,500 titles, is now a renowned sports politician. Steve Ovett, whose epic races against Coe over 800 and 1,500 metres provided two of the defining images of the 1980 Moscow Olympics, lives in contented obscurity in Australia.

Although it is now a quarter of a century since the pair each won an Olympic title in the race he was expected to lose, the Coe-Ovett rivalry in Moscow is still recalled with something close to awe.

"Is it really 25 years?," said Dave Moorcroft, a fine 1,500 runner at the time who competed in the 5,000 in Moscow and is now chief executive of UK Athletics.

"There was such a sense of excitement at the time. They were two such different camps.

"I have never witnessed such an intense rivalry. We knew we were part of something special. It was something of a soap opera, two competitors from the same nation who were so different. Almost the whole Games focussed around the two races."

TRANSFIXED BRITAIN

The Coe-Ovett rivalry transfixed Britain in the strike-ridden days of the late 1970s, reaching its peak in Moscow during the fraught early days of Margaret Thatcher's first Conservative government.

It was given an extra edge by obvious differences between the duo, although their personalities were not as disparate as they were painted in some newspapers.

Coe was a graduate of Loughborough University who refined a running style close to perfection through a rigorous training programme supervised by his autocratic father Peter.

Ovett was the long-haired son of a Brighton market trader who developed his prodigious natural talent to such effect that he became the most exciting middle-distance racer of his time.

"An athlete today could not appreciate the incredible attention they got on a daily basis," said Craig Masback, now head of the American athletics federation who was denied a probable berth in the Moscow 1,500 metres final because of the U.S.-led boycott. "It's like soccer players today."

In Moscow, conventional wisdom decreed that world record holder Coe started favourite for the 800. As the world record holder over 1,500 and victor over 42 consecutive races, Ovett seemed destined to win the longer event.

Conventional wisdom was confounded. Coe committed what he freely admits was every basic error possible over two laps and was left trailing Ovett in the 800.

With Ovett now a prohibitive favourite for the 1,500, Coe faced the severest test yet of his temperament and resilience.

"I can remember the level of expectation and excitement and anticipation before the 1,500 which was in complete contrast to the way I went to the line in the 800," he recalled.

"And I think because I didn't manage the mental side of it very well in the lead-up to the 800, I had almost got to the point where I was slightly disinterested which is not a good sign before an Olympic final."

PERFECT DISTANCE

After the field had dawdled through the first two laps in a typical Olympic final, East German Juergen Straub shot to the front, followed by Coe who was determined this time not to lose touch with the leaders.

At 200 metres, Straub led by four metres with Ovett two metres further back. Coe kicked on the bend then accelerated again 50 metres from the line to finish first ahead of the German with Ovett taking the bronze.

"My primary feeling was relief," said Coe. "Then of course the exhilaration. I remember halfway around the start of the lap of honour thinking 'Oh God, I'm not sure I want to do this again'."

"There was not a lot of joy about Coe's victory," agreed Masback. "It was all about redemption."

Moorcroft was already on a plane flying home when the 1,500 took place.

"It was a huge surprise at the time," he said. "It's not quite so surprising looking back."

Four years later at the Los Angeles Games, Coe's name was enshrined in the history books when he became the first, and so far only, man to win two Olympic 1,500 titles.

Ovett, struggling with respiratory problems, finished last in the 800 and failed to finish the 1,500, leaving the stadium on a stretcher.

Although both were to win further titles, the fiercest rivalry yet over the classic track distance had effectively ended in the Lenin stadium in Moscow.

"They were the sparring, inseparable twins of the premier Olympic sport. Their stand-offs in Moscow 1980 and Los Angeles 1984 relegated the rest of the Olympic Games to a sideline," athletics writer Pat Butcher recorded in his 2004 book "The Perfect Distance".

"In an era of strife and social division, they gave Britons something to be proud of. Again and again and again. They rebuffed challenges from all-comers, Americans, Russians and the newly emerging Africans, who now carry all before them, yet still talk about Ovett and Coe in hushed terms."

Reuters UK
By John Mehaffey