Saw in a FB group the other day somebody had posted that famous 5000m race where Irishman John Treacy pipped Ovett on the line when the latter had already done his customary celebratory wave to the crowd.
Although it's often used to highlight how 'arrogant' Ovett was, it also shows what a versatile runner he was and his talent at 5000m.
1/ Ovett was exhausted from Moscow (it was a week after the 1500m final).
2/ He had a bad cold that he developed as soon as he arrived back from Moscow.
3/ Treacy was certainly no bum. He was a specialist 5/10k man who had just finished 7th in the Moscow 5000 final, despite collapsing from heat exhaustion a few days before in one of the 10000 heats. He would go on to win a bronze in the LA marathon.
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.)