Seb Coe-Steve Ovett-1980 Moscow Olympics-1500 Metres Heats,Semis and Final

Looking at Ovett run in the heats and semis,it seemed inconceivable that anyone from athletics history could defeat him! In the semis especially, his nonchalant wave while no less than five atheletes strained every sinew to get a qualification place behind him,seemed to place him on another plane. So all credit to Coe,who,on the back of a poor 800 metre final run a few days earlier ,showed just how good he was.Helped mightily by the East German Straub,who obviously condidered the only way of defeating the British duo was to run flat out for the last half of the race,Coe ran the final 800 metres in an astonishing 1.48.5,and the last 100 metres in 12..1 !! The unthinkable had happened...Ovett had had his finish run out of him. I often wonder if Ovett paid a little too much respect to Coe by running behind him as opposed to his usual place ,on the shoulder of whoever was leading....if he'd actually come off of Straub first down the home staraight, who knows? My gut feeling is that Coe was going to win the gold,come hell or highwater! This, for me , is better than Hollywood! Enjoy!!

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• Steve Ovett
• Seb Coe
• Sebastian Coe
• Steve Cram
• Jurgen Straub
• Coe-Ovett
• Ovett-Coe
• 1980 Olympic Games
• Moscow Olympics
• 1500 metres
• Olympic Final
• Gold Medal
• Track and Field
• Athletics

[nicolrobertbaird]

fantastic, absolutely incredible, marvelous, terrific, magic, magnificent, everything right, delighted, privilege......

think pickering was happier than seb

[ARRISIPPY]

@nicolrobertbaird ....but did you like it?!!

[jimmyg141]

Fontanella was being a cocky prick in that heat with Coe. He wasn't so smug once the real running started.

[pablo16825]

epic race. And what a great interview too.

[Blind47]

Interesting to speculate on what effect John Walker would have had on this race. My own view is that Walker would have nabbed the bronze behind Coe and Straub with Ovett in fourth place.I remember sitting up late at night listening to this race in New zealand wishing Walker had been able to defend his title.

[rc2869]

I remember not seeing this race live - some family event and no VCR but remember seemingly constant repeats the next day. I was really pleased for Coe (although there weren't many Sebastian's in inner City Brum) when neighbour told me he had won. So was she - wonderful Welsh Lady and absolute Sporting Nut who is recently deceased at age of 93. RIP - she relayed a great sporting story to me at the age of 8.

[rc2869]

@deano27671 A good sumation and yes they were the biggest 2 sportsmen in the country at the time. To be fair Daley rose to join them at this time. We had no great boxers or footballers - (which was not as high profile as it is now other than Keegan and Dalglish). Besides it was a team game as was Wales and England Rugby teams. Suppose Robin Cousins had won gold but that ain't really a sport. It was before Botham's heroics.

[TheEctomorph]

@geekpie100 [Continuing on from my previous 'post' about Sebastian Coe and Steve Ovett] 1983 World Championships in Helsinki.

What a marvellous, glorious era for British athletics (I am referring to the years 1979, 1980 and 1981.) Back then, the two greatest middle-distance runners in the world were both British ... and, what is more, the greatest decathlete in the world came from this green and pleasant land, too. I do not think that I will see another (athletics) era quite like it again.

[TheEctomorph]

@geekpie100 [Continuing on from my previous 'post' about Sebastian Coe and Steve Ovett] Good Lord that Mr Coe managed to beat his fabled rival from Brighton, on that summer's day in Moscow, more than three decades ago. And, in saying that, I would like to make it clear that I have the utmost respect and admiration for Steve Ovett as an athlete ..... and I wish that he had gone on to win more Gold medals at major international championships: the 1982 European Championships in Athens, and the

[TheEctomorph]

@geekpie100 [Continuing on from my previous 'post' about Sebastian Coe and Steve Ovett]: him again, then he (Ovett) would unquestionably have gone down in history as the greatest British middle-distance runner of all time. Coe, on the other hand, would have been castigated and put down by the media to such an extent that he would probably have quit the sport ...... at just 23 years of age. That would have been a tragedy ..... for Coe himself and for British athletics in general. So thank the

[TheEctomorph]

@geekpie100 [Continuing on from my previous 'post' about Sebastian Coe and Steve Ovett] medal.

All credit to the articulate, middle-class Coe for coming back from a crushing - and totally unexpected - defeat in the 800 metres just 6 days previously. His performance in the 1500m Olympic final in Moscow - on Saturday, 1st August, 1980 was superlative. The pressure on Coe - going into that race - must have been absolutely enormous. If the 'big O' had got the better of