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.