coach.... wrote:
didn't renato say that he drove behind coe in italy
he ran 30km in 1hr 30m i think he said
Yes, I think you're right. I remember him saying something like that. In which case there certainly wasn't anything wrong with his endurance. 90mins for 30km is indicative of being able to run 2:10 for a Marathon.
Deanouk wrote:
coach.... wrote:didn't renato say that he drove behind coe in italy
he ran 30km in 1hr 30m i think he said
Yes, I think you're right. I remember him saying something like that. In which case there certainly wasn't anything wrong with his endurance. 90mins for 30km is indicative of being able to run 2:10 for a Marathon.
It was 99 minutes, not 90 minutes.
"I remember than in 1986, preparing European Championships, when he was in Tirrenia (Italian National Center) in February, he asked me to follow him with the car in a training of 30 km on tarmac road, that he finished in 1 hr 39'"
http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?board=1&id=3979265&thread=3976142rhymes with colt wrote:
Deanouk wrote:Yes, I think you're right. I remember him saying something like that. In which case there certainly wasn't anything wrong with his endurance. 90mins for 30km is indicative of being able to run 2:10 for a Marathon.
It was 99 minutes, not 90 minutes.
"I remember than in 1986, preparing European Championships, when he was in Tirrenia (Italian National Center) in February, he asked me to follow him with the car in a training of 30 km on tarmac road, that he finished in 1 hr 39'"
http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?board=1&id=3979265&thread=3976142
That seems more reasonable. 90 min for 30km indicates way under 2:10 marathon ability! 99 mins is still pretty impressive for an 800 guy, however.
Peer Mediator wrote:
rhymes with colt wrote:It was 99 minutes, not 90 minutes.
"I remember than in 1986, preparing European Championships, when he was in Tirrenia (Italian National Center) in February, he asked me to follow him with the car in a training of 30 km on tarmac road, that he finished in 1 hr 39'"
http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?board=1&id=3979265&thread=3976142That seems more reasonable. 90 min for 30km indicates way under 2:10 marathon ability! 99 mins is still pretty impressive for an 800 guy, however.
LIsa O'Dea was a 400 h and ended up ranked in the marathon. Who can say what anyone really 'is'?
I only made the comment because most people assume that Coe and Ovett were roughly evenly matched over 1500/mile but that Coe was by far the better 800 runner. On the watch maybe but the competitve record suggests otherwise.
Clearly Coe had a far more successful track career than Ovett - something Ovett himself has readily admitted on several occasions.
his failure to win a world or Olympic 1500 title is the only real gap in Ovett's CV and in some people's eyes the thing that debars him from true greatness. It is interesting to think what ahealthy Ovett could have achieved in 1984 - after all he did reach two finals when he was obviously seriously ill. Coe says that after the 800 final he was very concerned about Ovett's condition - he wasn't receiving prompt medical attention and was in a very,very bad way. to come back and reach the 1500 final after that says something about the man. A healthy Ovett would clearly have won a medal in the 1500 - the gaps behind Coe were pretty significant - and Coe himself has stated that he was fully extended in the last 80m or so and would have had no answer if somebody had been able to challenge him.
Even though I come from the north of England I was a big Ovett fan but accept that the record shows Coe's superiority as an athlete. My opinion of Coe's career post track is less benign!
21.7 200m / 65 half is outstanding, maybe better than mo farah's 400m / marathon range?
Yeah, in terms of range Ovett must be one of the very best. A unique talent. He started life as a sprinter when he was in his teens which is where he got his incredible speed from but to be able to maintain that and run a very credible Half Marathon time on a whim is mightily impressive. It's a shame he never won a global 1500m medal as that was his event. If their had been a world Champs or Olympics in 77-79 he would have surely dominated as no one was close to him during that time
He's also a fantastic commentator too:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xldWJcBMLDk
A great man!
when i think of the sprinters at my club that are good enough to run 21.7 200m the thought of any of them being able to run a respectable h/m time let alone anywhere near 65min just seems impossible
olde Brit wrote:
That story is a complete fabrication. It has usually been attributed to Niles Loughton as he has been known to do this sort of thing in the past. It was debunked quite some time ago. I am surprised this fellow fell for it. Poor sap.
It was the Dartford Half Marathon, August 20th, 1977. Ovett won by 21 seconds in 1:05.38. He had won the European Cup Final 1500m with previous, and would win the 800m in a match v West Germany on August 29th. Five days later he won the World Cup 1500m.
Ovett had planned to go to Scotland for a track race, but the flight was cancelled due to fog.
It was the first running of the race, and it's still mentioned on the Dartford Harriers' website.
I remember the 'Athletics Weekly' report of the race at the time, and Watson commented that he could never even get Ovett out of cruise mode. If you listen to the Sebastian Coe documentary 'Born to Run' he also mentions his reaction at the time.
To give some perspective on the time, the world-best at that stage was 1:02:57 by Toshihiro Matsumoto and Mirus Yifter. So you're talking about some one who was in the middle of a track season as an 800/1500m runner, running within 2:40 of the world-record while far from flat out.
I saw Ovett and Coe run road relay legs on the same day - Ovett running the fastest long leg (6 miles+) on the Southern 12 stage, and there is no way that Coe would have beaten Ovett at 10000m.