David Coleman's commentry with 2 laps to go : 'Just look at Ovett there. He had to slow down he was moving so easily'.
Rono did not pace Ovett. He was deliberately changing speeds to try to throw Ovett off his rhythm. The first few laps were actually slow, evidenced by the fact that the field were still with him and Ovett until the last couple of laps. Ovett actually waved to the crowd as he was passing Rono. He could have ran at least 6 seconds faster, probably 10. So that would have given him 7:34 to 7:30 in your conversion, probably far too good for Coghlan at 3000m in Moscow. Not to mention that in this hypothetical event, Ovett would obviously have trained a bit more for the 3000m instead of the 800m. When he beat Rono he'd just moved up to the 1500 from the 400/800m the year before and was running the 3000 for fun (and no doubt a payday against the guy who was the Bekele/El G/Kipchoge of the day).
People also say Rono was tired that day, and no doubt he was, but so was Ovett who'd just done the 800/1500 double (or denied by cheater Beyer). Shame Rono wasn't fresher so he could have pulled Ovett to an even faster time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JZTzLne2A8
Ovett was probably in 1:42/3:28/12:55 shape in 78.
Intrinsic^