My breakfast with Coe and Ovett

JRinaldi · 2006-03-17T02:48:07-05:00

Had breakfast with a few of my mates yesterday. You might know them, Seb Coe and Steve Ovett. I was one of the lucky ones to fork out 170.00 (AUS) bucks for a piece of toast, two eggs, half a tomatoes, some bacon, harsh brown and some mushrooms. While it was a mighty expensive breakfast, the conversation was well work it. Along with Coe and Ovett, there was also Cathy Freeman, Ron Clarke (both of whom were a part of the final leg of the queens baton relay the night before), Jonathan Edwards, Dailey Thompson (who described himself as an ordinary block who did extraordinary things for a few years), Kiwi's Wills (looking fit), Blincoe and Jason Stewart along with numerous BBC reporters /commentators and other Australian athletes including yours truly. The conversation progressed from their humble beginnings to their meteoric rise to the top of world athletics. Ovett talked about meeting Harry Wilson his long time coach by chance we he showed up late to a training day. He was booked in to work with the sprint group, but got there late and was recruited into the distance group, were they had him run a series of 1000m reps. He then went on to discuss his first Games in 76 and the perils of running in lane 8 in a year in which they ran the first 300m in lanes (they said this was the only year they adopted such practice, but we all know they did this at the 74 Comm. Games as well). Frustrated by his performance in the final he set himself for revenge in the 1500m, but was tripped when a Canadian fell in front of him in his semi final. He vowed that he would never be knocked of his feet again. That comment lead nicely in to the 1980 800m final (which we viewed on two big screen projectors), a race which saw Ovett run the most aggressive race in recent memory. Not in terms of bold front running, but in terms of making sure that he was always in the position he wanted to be in regardless of who was in front of him (I'm quite confident that if you adopted that tactics these days you would be rubbed out before you got your way to the cool down area). He also talked about setting goals for himself and ticking them off once he achieved them. His dream was always to win an OG gold medal and felt that he achieved that goal and it may have lead to him not being as hungry in the 1500 final. He also related a story of waking up the following day in his coaches bath tub and having no memory of how it got there. I was sitting next to his old training buddy Mat Patterson and he hinted that this story may have been embellished a little. Next he talk about his race in the World cup final in 81 when he kicked so hard that he forced John Walker to step off the track with 200m to go. Ovett was puzzled when he looked back after crossing the line as to the whereabouts of Walker. A few minutes later Walker walked past and mutter to Ovett, "Why did you have to go and do that?". Ovett also discussed the day he won a half marathon race the week before breaking the mile WR. He was only there because a few club mates asked him to drive them to the race in the mini van. Ovett entered the race with the intentions of getting his 10 miler completed, but due to his competitive nature, he kept going and moved to the lead just after 10 miles to win the race by over a minute. Coe (a little more articulate than Ovett, but clearly suffering the effects of a cold) also talked about his beginnings in the sport and how he came into it from a 3000m/cross country back ground, whereas Ovett was more of a sprinters type. (It amazing how they both swapped roles during their carers). He clearly credited his farther for his guidance through his career and talked about his Father's success as a cyclist in his late teens, "He clearly understood endurance" were Seb's exact words. He also talk about the benefits of having a coach with no background in the sport, which mean that he placed no limitations on what a session should be run in. He broken the event down and looked at it in pure mathematics terms. He also talked about his Father referring to Seb as his athlete (rather than son), only on a good day! He then went on to discuss his progression in the sport and about a race in 76 were he improved from 1:51 to 1:47 shortly after the GB trials. He believes in that improvement had of happened a month earlier and he had of made the 76 team, the results in 80 may have been a little different. He's not saying that he would have run, just that he wouldn't have of run such a poor tactical race. He surmised that the expense he would have got going to a games as a no one would have made a huge difference when he arrived in 80 has a heavy favourite. The discussion the turned to Coe and Ovett's first race on the track at the 78 European Champs. Seb's farther told Seb's that he a little chance of winning (which struck me as strange as Seb had just broken the British record running 1:44 mid a few weeks before hand) and should use the final as a test for the future. Seb said he remembers his fathers words clearly, "I want you to run as hard as you can for as long as you can". Seb followed his word exactly and went thru in 49.32 and 1:16 at the 6, only to start dying with 100 to go. "I knew I had nothing left and was waiting for a white vest to come sailing past", which it did, "He even managed to smile at me" Seb recalls. All of a sudden the blue vest of East German Buyer flew past the both of them and went on to win in a new European record of 1:43.8 with Ovett second breaking Seb's UK record with 1:44.09 (the fastest time Ovett would ever run). His falter was pleased with his athletes effort he said "Good, now we just have to work on running two laps as fast as the first". Seb then talked about what Ovett said to him after the race when Seb was down on all fours when he felt a tap on his should. He looked up to see Ovett who asked "Who the f*** was that". The room irrupted with laughter. Then he discussed his 79 season which saw him break the 800-100-1500 and mile records. "I was really that fit as I had just finished sitting my final exams". He flew into Oslo a few days before the meet and ran a quick series of 200's on the track (22 point) and relay this information back to his father at home in the UK. They decided to have a good and asked for a pacemaker to take him thru in 50 point. The meet promoter responded with :I don't have anyone that can run 50 point" , but they finally convinced one of the Jamaican athletes to take up the duties and tow Seb into the record books with a 1:42.33 WR. As apposed to Ovett you merely wanted to tick off the goals one by one, Seb and his Farther wanted to see how far they could push the boundaries. They then went on to talking about 1980 and the disappointments of the 800 final. He told a story of how he was lying in bed late the following morning (he was rooming with Allan Wells who won the 100m) with the curtains drawn, when Daily Thompson stormed in and precede to look out the windows. "How's it looking out there?" Seb asked. "Well Seb, to tell you the truth, it looking a little silver out there" Daily replied. That was the start of the recovery process Seb said and he put on his runners and headed out on a 10-12 mile only to be followed by the British press the whole way. Coe's trail of shame, the papers read the following day back home. Ovett interjected with, "After I won the 8, the papers read 'Bad boy wins'. The British are a fickle lot. We then watched that 1500 final. If you ever want to see a race in which someone run's the perfect race, this is it. Coe did not put a foot wrong and never looked like he was going to lose. It has to be said that Strubb showed a lot of balls taking that race by the scruff of the neck like he did at 800. Sadly we were close to the 9:30 deadline and the conversation really just brushed over the next three years to 84 and there really wasn't even that much said about the two races in LA. I left the morning content that I had gotten value for my 170.00 bucks, but stupidly for to bring any of the 100's of books I have on the two to get an autograph. I guess the memories of the morning will have to do (plus the little memento that I picked up that I can not disclose for fear of being locked up!) Those there can guess what it was. Sorry for the long post, but I was trying to give you all a little taste of what you missed out on. Please excuse the grammer and spelling, I have no time to re read over it. JR

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My breakfast with Coe and Ovett

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