Seb Coe, 4x 400m June 7th 81, Eng v Sco v Italy

[richard141724]

And this is the Olympic 1500m champion.

[SunnyKid975]

thanks Deano - wow 46.6 for Coe. There are a lot of 400m specialists who would love to have that time.

[richard141724]

And this the Olympic 1500m champion!

[dalgetty]

I heard he could do the beep test to 20, rest for five minutes, and to it to 20 again

[ynotnilknarf39]

47 seconds and didn't look like he was pushed too much, legend.

[HoComputersInc]

Dang, even when he approaches the finish line, he still looks very relaxed. Perfect form.

[marlin804]

Nice Deano!!!  If you have anymore please share!!

[acetracking]

These relays Coe ran early summer 81 is an epitome of Coe's era. There was very little WR opportunities compared to El Guerrouj, Morceli, Kipketer or Rudisha.

Last 20 years allmost every international( majorchamp. excluded) meet has been a time trial.

[sebcoe81]

Deano if only you where a woman.

[deano27671]

@sebcoe81 lol.

Glad you enjoyed it. I'll upload some more soon.

[deano27671]

The Italian runner, Roberto Tozzi, was a member of the bronze medal winning Italian quartet from the previous summer's Moscow Olympics. He was also European indoor silver medalist at 400m in 1984 and had a pb of 46.03

[acetracking]

@deano27671 As much as I enjoy watching Coe's 1981 racing it also makes me cry and laugh at the same time.

Here we have the greatests 800/1500 man ever and he is spending his lifetime best shape running mickey mouse 4x400 relay against Scotland, Ethiopia and Italy! What a waste of talent. It is like Einstein teaching schoolchildren.

The first 100 looked like 4x1500 WR attempt. It was 12,0 with good flying start. Then the second 100 was like 4x800 relay. Last 100 11,4.

[deano27671]

@acetracking I agree entirely, and it's a point I often try explaining on various message boards, when certain fans not privy to this era, criticise Coe for not running enough sub 1:43 times like Kipk. Their rather narrow minded view of things can't discern the huge difference in the two eras they ran in. There is an in depth discussion in Pat Butcher's book outlining the fact that UK athletics was practically run by Andy Norman at the time & he pretty much determined where each athlete ran.

[deano27671]

Even Coe was not immune, and there was the ridiculous situation where British athletes were obligated to run in allocated "international matches", usually on home soil, in return for being allowed to run in the Zurichs, Brussels, etc. In one respect Coe should be congratulated that he turned out for these events frequently, but it did mean he ran routine 1:46/1:47's or 3:40's, and meant there was less opportunity to regularly race on the European circuit searching fast times.

[deano27671]

In 81 he ran 8 times for his country in "matches", twice for his University and twice in home meets. That left him 5 races to run in "European Invitations" , which would have had to have the blessing of the BAAB (A. Norman). Of those 5 races, 4 were world records! Yes, his talent that year was wasted.