John Treacy pipping 'arrogant' Steve Ovett over 5000m - what it demonstrated

Agreed. With his 100miles/week base and a 65 min half marathon, he was able to break 13 min in '83.

Clean Irish blue collar runner got his rightful win against doped up arrogant English basterd.

He would go on to win a bronze in the LA marathon.

Didn't he win Silver at LA Olympics in 84??

Yes it was silver in 84 behind Carlos Lopez. He was also double world cross country champion in 78 and 79 I think. Was top class in the mud!

Oh my how cool is that? YAY!

I didn't remember.

I'm seeing John next week...and I'll congratulate him..

His thrashing of Rono over two miles two years earlier demonstrates your point much better though.

patti wrote:

Oh my how cool is that? YAY!

I didn't remember.

I'm seeing John next week...and I'll congratulate him..

What's he doing here? Visiting Ray and going to run Manchester, CT.?

And it was nice to see Ovetts ego deflated in that race, like air out of a balloon.

justice for once wrote:

Clean Irish blue collar runner got his rightful win against doped up arrogant English basterd.

Lol, Steve was the son of a market trader and wasn't even interested in world records let alone doping to achieve them.

John Treacy went to University in America at 18, so I doubt if he was the son of Irish peasants.

If you want to make unfounded doping accusations, maybe a better target would be the guy who beat Treacy for the gold in LA.

Carlos Lopez had one of the most suspicious progressions in athletics history. Almost makes Aouita's look legit. Very average runner for 17 years, then wins Gold in LA at age 29 and smashes the world record a year later. Hmmm...

And where do you think a name like Ovett comes from? In his early days, it was sometimes even spelled on TV as O'vett.

**Carlos Lopez was actually 37 when he transformed himself into Olympic Champion/World Record Holder after 17 years of being average.

Lopes was the silver medalist over 10000m in 76 and a former world cross champion.......if you consider that to be average

Lopes was average when he was lapped a couple of times in the '71 Euros and finished last but he rose to the top in 10 years, not 17.

Then he held that for almost another 10 despite setbacks.

Lopes ended with 3 titles and two silvers at World Cross.

Ovett didn’t take the 5,000m seriously, should have been at least as good as Mottram over the distance.

Subway Surfers Addiction wrote:

Ovett didn’t take the 5,000m seriously, should have been at least as good as Mottram over the distance.

He never really liked the longer distance, especially on the track, for similar reasons he didn't enjoy solo time trials. It was all about the sharp end of racing for him, which probably came from starting off as a 400m runner.

It's an interesting question as to just how impaired he was permanently by LA. And then by the time he did try switching to the 5000m age was a factor too. That FB group posted an interview yesterday with him from the winter of 84/85. At that point he hadn't even been given the goahead to start training again and there was still the possibility he would need surgery on his heart. It's clear that he wasn't able to perform in the heat ever again, which obviously cost him in Stuttgart and Rome. I don't think he ever ran a fast 1500m again after LA (although beat Cram on the road at the end of 85). So to run 13:20 and then destroy Hutchins and Buckner at the Commonwealths (both consistant top 5 world ranked 5k men) in the three 5000m races he ran in 86 was impressive, given he was likely a shadow of what he was.

I wonder if any other elite runner in history has ever returned to racing at the highest level after suffering heart problems?

Also, people gush about Aouita beating Johnny Gray in 88 over 800m when Aouita was dedicating himself to the event. So Ovett being expected to beat (and only losing to 'arrogance') an Olympic 5000 finalist the week after winning the 800m gold shows what an athlete he was back then.

Exactly what type of heart surgery would it have been?

Ovett 1250 man over 5k wrote:

So Ovett, who had just won Olympic Gold at 800m was moving up to challenge an Olympic finalist over 5000m, and despite exhaustion and suffering from a bad cold could and should have accelerated clear in the home straight in a decent time for those days of 13:27 (one or two seconds faster if he hadn't eased up. A motivated, fit, prime Ovett dedicating a season to the 5000m and with doped up rabbits like Aouita to chase would certainly have broken 13:00 - the first and maybe even only clean sub 13 minute 5K guy.)

He challenged a 5k finalist who over the previous couple of weeks had collapsed from the heat in a 10k and ran a couple of hard 5ks. Not exactly a guy set up to run his best times.

It is a long stretch to say he clearly would have broken 13. He might have. He might have been a 13:10 guy. Cutting 20s off a pr is a lot of time. And no a 65 min HM isn't some crazy endurance indicator for a 3:50 miler.

Ovett is just a poor mans webb with slower PRs:) You always wonder what would have happened if he concentrated on running distance races instead of middle distance but there is no way of telling what would have happened. If they actually had tried the issue wouldn't be anywhere near as interesting

sdfasasd wrote:

Ovett is just a poor mans webb with slower PRs:) You always wonder what would have happened if he concentrated on running distance races instead of middle distance but there is no way of telling what would have happened. If they actually had tried the issue wouldn't be anywhere near as interesting

You mean Webb was a poor mans Ovett with faster PRs and no medals.

Ovett was better than Webb in practically every way. He even had better hair.

really? lol wrote:

Ovett was better than Webb in practically every way. He even had better hair.

That's a low bar.

Well, ya'know John won the race one year at least..maybe more. I forget. He and I won it together one year, I think. Some details escape me unless I am reminded about a detail...ya'know.

I knew John before I knew Hubby Danny.

Well, in any case. Hubby and John were roommates at PC as well as teammates.

Yeah, Ray will be there....along with John's sons.

Molly Huddle is running, too.

Though I would enjoy meeting Lagat!!!! Huh! Right"

Hubby and I will be so glad to see the Tracy family once again.

Too long between visits.

Son went to Ireland a couple of years ago to visit and missed John. As John was in the States...nevertheless, John was a gracious "host" and help my son and friend have a wonderful visit to Ireland.

Next up...us parents have to go...and during xc season...maybe jump in a race or two...hehe