Anyone around in 80s see this as Coe-Ovett?

There wasn't a diamond league so they could pick and choose their meets. Coe didn't like to race often (all his races were record attempts) while Ovett would do races longer than a mile often so that kept them apart too.

It's off-topic of course and I 100% support your anti-doping takes on this board, but it's a little bit humorous that you conjured up George Best. I watched him play for the San Jose Earthquakes in the very early 80s and -- though he still had flashes of brilliance -- he was basically a washed-up, full-blown alcoholic by then. Georgie would have been at his peak of global popularity in the late 60s and early to mid 70s when he played for Man U. I'm assuming you're too young to have been around when he was still playing? Late 70s through mid-80s global soccer star would have been someone like Maradona.

I'm an Aussie. Everyone in Australia knew Coe and Ovett. Noone knows Jakob and Kerr.

Before Moscow they both had two WRs and shared one.

Ovett - 1 mile, 2 mile

Coe - 800m, 1000m

Shared - 1500m

Both Number 1

My tip - Jakob

that wasn't a great rivalry, it was just a rivalry between two Britons, who are about the only country that will hype up track.

Soon Steve Cram eclipsed them both, and then Aouita stormed onto the scene, so it was no longer Briton vs Briton and they stopped hyping it.

As I recall back then they set up the ability to set up expense accounts and pay winnings into the account and get permission to use money from the account to pay travel expenses etc. It turned out to be a pain to operate and they reverted to a normal earnings system.

I used to know Coe's dad, he was the friend of my training partner's coach and his dad would often drop by to chat at practices. They often talked about the workouts that he was having Seb do. At one time I remember him returning from a hearing about his loss of his job due to spending too much time with Seb!

Who was the first runner under 3:30 for 1500 again?

that sure was a neat achievement, but it was soon matched by Cram, and Aouita, and even Sydney Maree. Then Aouita went and did the first sub 13 and sub 7:30.

So you really haven't got Coe being all that special even in his own era, except for you obviously being a Briton. That makes it special to you, but not to me.

Cram has matched Cram?

Coe wasn't special only because his era was stacked. That being said, I doubt we will ever see another man break the 800, 1000, 1500, mile records in 30 days ever again. He obviously wasn't the first man under 3:30, but if his WR attempts hadn't been sabotaged by James Robinson and Andy Norman he certainly would have been. Setting an 800m WR that stood for over 20 years (until the Kenyan EPO era) and the only man to defend his Olympic 1500 title. Yeah, just another alsoran.

Juancoe, nobody ever has set those 4 records within 30 days.

Coe has not set an 800 WR that stood for over 20 years.

What is the Kenyan EPO era?

Are you just plain stupid or do you act by purpose?

Coe and Ovett were especially dominant at the same time from 1979 to 1981. Ovett had a three year win streak at 1500/mile going into the 1980 Olympics, so his superstar era began a couple of years earlier. Coe was not well known before 1979, so putting on match races in 1979 would not have made sense early on, and in 1980 they were not keen on giving the other guy an advantage before the Olympics. They should have raced each other in 1981. There was not Diamond League or Golden League in those days, but there was lots of money in appearance fees. There were also events like the World Cup and European Cup in which they would both be picked, but for different events. They both had an aura of invincibility that few athletes have. It would have been a major shock for them to lose a race. None of the guys running today have that, though Ingebrigtsen was almost there. Morceli and El Guerrouj had it. There was a race series of matchups set up for 1982 which unfortunately fell through due to Ovett's knee injury and Coe's illness issues. By the time they were both back to full health, they were still very good, but the aura of invincibility was gone.

While on the subject, people making definitive predictions for Paris based on a race in May might want to look at how Coe was progressing two months before the Los Angeles games.