Running on Empathy wrote:
You really can't count the '84 Olympics per Ovett as he should not have been racing at all due to that bronchial condition. At least do the decency of putting an asterisk on those head-to-head scores.
That's certainly true, and he should have been retired already in 89 and was pressured into racing Coe (who was trying to prove a point after 88) so that shouldn't count either. Then again, Coe ran a few times when he was ill (even if only discovered later), such as in 83 when Cram beat him in an 800m. It also seems unfair to count Cram races from Moscow when he was still a teen and had done amazingly well to reach the Olympic final.
But yeah, you're right. If you took out the LA Games and the 89 race then Ovett's head to head with Coe is actually a clear 3 - 1 in his favour. Which makes you realize what a heavy favourite Ovett was going in to the Moscow 1500m final and what a surprise it was that Coe won.