Sebastian Coe v Steve Ovett

[Eccles Blue]

Coe was the twat who bollocked up the London Olympic ticket allocation.

Almost impossible to get tickets as an ordinary man in the street. He had given so many to companies offering hotel/ticket packages and to the hundreds of competing nations. It was farcical when the said nations were offering their tickets for sale as soon as they arrived in London having failed to sell them back in their own countries.

Sebastian Coe is a complete and utter self-centred TWAT.

Other than that you really like him don’t you? ;-) :-)

 

[Mad Eyed Screamer]

Athletics, like practically every sport, was more accessible to the public back then.

Dear Mr Murdoch and his ilk have a lot to answer for.

We only had 3 TV Channels to watch.
If Coe was facing Ovette tonight, Love Island or Wanking On Ice would draw more viewers and the kids would be on their computer games

 

[Mad Eyed Screamer]

I don't recall that but I was only 10 at the time. I was also too young to really know much about politics although I grew up in a largely Labour-voting family but in any case, I had no idea whether Coe was a Tory or not back then so yeah, it was always Coe for me, and a few years later it was Steve Cram who had some great battles not just with Coe and Ovett but also with Said Aouita.

Back then, athletics was a great watch. Almost every week in the summer months there would be athletics on prime-time terrestrial TV. Many of those meetings at home and on the continent would usually have at least one event where all the best athletes in the world would gather for an epic face-off and maybe an attempt at a world-record.

Used to make me laugh when they raced at certain venues 'to attempt a world record' yet not attempt it at others.
What was it about Oslo and Zurich that got these records? Altitude? Wind on your backs down the home straight?

 

[Vienna_70]

Used to make me laugh when they raced at certain venues 'to attempt a world record' yet not attempt it at others.
What was it about Oslo and Zurich that got these records? Altitude? Wind on your backs down the home straight?

If the wind was on your back in the home straight, it would be in your face on the back straight.

 

[Eccles Blue]

We only had 3 TV Channels to watch.
If Coe was facing Ovette tonight, Love Island or Wanking On Ice would draw more viewers and the kids would be on their computer games

Or of course they could be watching 'Egg Heads'? *innocent face personified*

 

[LWashington]

Used to make me laugh when they raced at certain venues 'to attempt a world record' yet not attempt it at others.
What was it about Oslo and Zurich that got these records? Altitude? Wind on your backs down the home straight?

Altitude for records up to 400m and for field events like the long jump. The tracks they preferred for middle-long distances tended to be the newer tracks with better surfaces. It's why the long jump, 200m, 400m and relay records set in the rarefied air of the mountain plateau of Mexico City in 1968 seemed to last forever.

 

[Mad Eyed Screamer]

If the wind was on your back in the home straight, it would be in your face on the back straight.

Not having that. Next you'll be telling me football teams that chose to have the sun on their backs in the first half have to face it in the 2nd half!

 

[Vienna_70]

Not having that. Next you'll be telling me football teams that chose to have the sun on their backs in the first half have to face it in the 2nd half!

The sun might have set by the time the second half starts.

 

[chesterbells]

Nice slanderous remark!

Having read quite a bit about her, she has been an elite athlete for quite some time and changed coaches multiple times. It wasn’t until she engaged experts in biomechanics that she really started to pull away, literally and figuratively.

She changed her hurdle mechanics, her steps and even her lead off leg for the later hurdles, while also competing in the 400M to gain raw speed and better sprint endurance.

I guess when someone as cynical as you suggests she’s somehow cheating, it’d be nice to see a scintilla of evidence before deriding the GOAT in her event…but then who needs evidence in a world of “alternative facts” and “it’s just an opinion” cynicism.

Show your cards. She’s shown hers.

I think your stance is a naive one. I don’t know your age, but anyone who has been following sport for a fair while should, imho, maintain a healthy scepticism whenever any athlete completely blows away their competitors by such a huge margin.
I don’t have any evidence of her wrongdoing - how would I have, unless I was involved in anti-doping or close to her. As such I’m not accusing her of doping, or cheating. What I am doing is raising my doubts.

In my opinion, changing her hurdles mechanics, esp when the barriers are so low in that event, can in no way explain her amazing underlying speed.

Anyway, I’ve been doing some reading too.

 

[allblackcitizen]

Those were indeed great times for athletics in the UK. erneI recall preferring Coe, but then I'm.a soft southener.

I recall watching Steve Cram right in the mix too though, The Jarrow Arrow.

Alan Wells was mentioned earlier, 100m gold at the 1980 Olympics, that's certainly one for the history books.

I think 800/1500 are perfect race distances for TV, enough time to enjoy it but not too long

Coe is from Sheffield and Ovett from Brighton, so that doesn't hold up, although I grant you Coe had the appearance and demeanor of a posh southern public schoolboy.

I never liked Coe, and liked him even less when I read about him being William Hague's preferred "wrestling partner" (before he became an utterly useless Tory MP).

Steve Ovett had a statue in Preston Park in Brighton until someone cut him off at the ankles and probably melted him down leaving just his feet on the plinth. His dismembered feet were there for years.

 

[Exeter Blue I am here]

Well clearly me and @platty7 didnt ;)

And me as well. Loved watching Coe. Blotted his copybook by coming out as a Tory tosspot, but he was class and elegance personified as a runner

 

[Eccles Blue]

Didn't Ovett retire to Australia? Ok, ok, I'll Google it. :-) ;-)


EDIT: I looked it up. He did. :-)

 

[ChicagoBlue]

I think your stance is a naive one. I don’t know your age, but anyone who has been following sport for a fair while should, imho, maintain a healthy scepticism whenever any athlete completely blows away their competitors by such a huge margin.
I don’t have any evidence of her wrongdoing - how would I have, unless I was involved in anti-doping or close to her. As such I’m not accusing her of doping, or cheating. What I am doing is raising my doubts.

In my opinion, changing her hurdles mechanics, esp when the barriers are so low in that event, can in no way explain her amazing underlying speed.

Anyway, I’ve been doing some reading too.

You’re going to have to do slightly better than 40 years ago!

Your “doubts,” in the absence of ANY evidence to the contrary, are libelous.

I’ll stand on my “naïveté” over your cynicism, until you produce a scintilla of evidence that the preeminent women’s 400M hurdler in the world is willing to give it all up for doping on the biggest stages in the world, KNOWING she is going to be constantly tested and is under a microscope.

Not only would her ridiculously successful career on the track be erased, but her unknowable financial gains from her on track excellence would disappear overnight.

I guess we can never say never about anyone, so what say you about City players? Dope or no dope? After all, Pep has “history,” right? Is Dr Cugat a magician or sophisticated doper or just a leading edge sports medicine physician, such that there is no-one anywhere else in the world City will send their players to?

P.S. Age 60…or FOC by BM standards.

 

[Gray]

Altitude for records up to 400m and for field events like the long jump. The tracks they preferred for middle-long distances tended to be the newer tracks with better surfaces. It's why the long jump, 200m, 400m and relay records set in the rarefied air of the mountain plateau of Mexico City in 1968 seemed to last forever.

One of the longest standing records is Jonathan Edward's triple jump of 18.29m set in Gothenburg on the 7th August 1995.

The city is 12m above sea level compared to Manchester which is 35/42m above.

No advantage of altitude for this record so a truly amazing jump by a really talented athlete.

 

[Gazza]

Didn't Ovett retire to Australia? Ok, ok, I'll Google it. :-) ;-)


EDIT: I looked it up. He did. :-)

This post was like a little self contained biosphere.

 

[Eccles Blue]

This post was like a little self contained biosphere.

Bet it made you smile though? ;-)

 

[Lovebitesandeveryfing]

Since this seems to be a big Sebastian Coe pile-on on here, let me just say, quietly, that he didn't actually go to a public school! (Was almost disappointed when I found that out). Not Oxbridge either.
And as Tory MPs go, there've been more dislikeable ones. Jacob Rees-Mogg, anyone?

By the way,I've got no real dog here. Don't particularly like or dislike Coe, don't particularly like or dislike Ovett. Great rivalry between them, and in retrospect, with Cram (and by the way, nobody's mentioning Brendan Foster, not in their class, admittedly, but part of the general group), it looks very much in retrospect like the golden age of British middle distance running.
Just posting in the name of balance.

 

[chesterbells]

You’re going to have to do slightly better than 40 years ago!

Your “doubts,” in the absence of ANY evidence to the contrary, are slanderous.

I’ll stand on my “naïveté” over your cynicism, until you produce a scintilla of evidence that the preeminent women’s 400M hurdler in the world is willing to give it all up for doping on the biggest stages in the world, KNOWING she is going to be constantly tested and is under a microscope.

Not only would her ridiculously successful career on the track be erased, but her unknowable financial gains from her on track excellence would disappear overnight.

I guess we can never say never about anyone, so what say you about City players? Dope or no dope? After all, Pep has “history,” right? Is Dr Cugat a magician or sophisticated doper or just a leading edge sports medicine physician, such that there is no-one anywhere else in the world City will send their players to?

P.S. Age 60…or FOC by BM standards.

There’s a lot there.

Well if you’re age 60, you should know better than to believe all you see in professional sport.
There is a history in many sports, and I’m not going to regale you with all the well known cases on here. The risk of being caught out hasn’t stopped sportspeople of the years from doing it.

Im not gonna comment on the specifics of City players, but if you’re asking me do I believe PEDs are or have been used in professional football, my answer is yes, I do. That’s my general view. I do wonder whether you think I have something specific against McLaughlin-Levrone. I absolutely don’t. I love track and field but there’s a part of me that retains a questioning point of view, when I see performances that are that much superior to anyone else in the world, whoever the athlete is. Same in cycling, which I also follow.

Anyway, feel free to reply back, but I’m gonna leave it there, especially as on lots of other topics I find myself generally agreeing with your posts ;-)

Fwiw, I do think she’s an immensely talented athlete.

 

[ChicagoBlue]

There’s a lot there.

Well if you’re age 60, you should know better than to believe all you see in professional sport.
There is a history in many sports, and I’m not going to regale you with all the well known cases on here. The risk of being caught out hasn’t stopped sportspeople of the years from doing it.

Im not gonna comment on the specifics of City players, but if you’re asking me do I believe PEDs are or have been used in professional football, my answer is yes, I do. That’s my general view. I do wonder whether you think I have something specific against McLaughlin-Levrone. I absolutely don’t. I love track and field but there’s a part of me that retains a questioning point of view, when I see performances that are that much superior to anyone else in the world, whoever the athlete is. Same in cycling, which I also follow.

Anyway, feel free to reply back, but I’m gonna leave it there, especially as on lots of other topics I find myself generally agreeing with your posts ;-)

Fwiw, I do think she’s an immensely talented athlete.

I understand your skepticism, but feel like it undermined one of the best performances of the Olympics.

The 80s were a different era and, while cheating and PEDs have become far more sophisticated, I think it’s unfair to tar her with a brush from decades before she was even born. That’s all.

Be well.

 

[mackenzie]

One of my close relations found themselves on holiday with one of Coe's half siblings in the 90s ( think it was his half sister). They had got quite close over a few drinks/nights and the sibling reminisced about Zeb as a child. Zeb had said "I don't know yet what I'm going to do when I'm older, but whatever it is I'll be very good at it."

Those 3 world records in 11 days were phenomenal. There was nobody quite like him, and although Ovett was a great runner too he wasn't in the same class