MEMORY TRACK - `Would have loved a British one-two-three in '84, but with me as No. 1'

By K Datta
Sebastian Coe has gone on record that winning the post of president of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) was the most poignant moment of his life. The double 1,500m gold medallist of the 1980 and 1984 Olympics, could not have been so naive as not to be aware of the momentous responsibilities he is now shouldering Still, it could have never happened at all.Had the British Olympic Association not decided, against government wishes, to take part in the Moscow Olympics, an athlete like Coe would have lost a great opportunity to make his mark as a runner. “There is every chance that would have happened,” Coe said in response to the observation on Monday .
Not just Coe but also others from a wonderful '80s generation like his great rivals -Steve Ovett and Steve Cram, and Daley Thompson, one of the world's greatest decathletes -could have missed out.
“Had the British Olympic Association not been an independently run organization and not made its own decision in the face of pressure from government, we wouldn't have gone to the Games,” said Coe, adding, “It will be one of my guiding principles as IAAF president -absolute independence and autonomy of sporting organizations to shape that sport in their own fashion, not what governments think what sports should look like.”
One remembers how, peeved by the Western bloc boycott of the Moscow Olympics led by President Jimmy Carter of the US, an elderly Russian matron at the hotel this writer was staying in, complained in unconcealed dis gust that she had lost the chance of her life to watch the American sprinters she had heard so much about. The babushka called them “children” and couldn't have cared less about all the Carters or the Leonid Brezhnevs of the world. All she had been looking forward to was watching US's famous black athletes.
And then she saw Coe smoothly striding to win the 1,500 gold at Luzhniki Stadium, beating favourite Ovett. The “good-looking, fresh-faced white boy has a smooth way of running,” she remarked with some satisfaction.
That fresh-faced, white boy would win another gold, again in the 1,500m at Los Angeles. This time it was not Ovett -who had beaten him to the gold in 1980 -but a Brazilian called Joaquim Cruz who beat the favourite Coe to the tape in the 800m. Generally talked of as an 800m specialist, it was the 1,500m that fetched Coe his famous gold medals. This reversal is an enigma best left to Coe to explain.

“I got beaten by someone faster and younger than me. There was not much short of an elephant gun that was going to stop Joaquim that day,” laughed Coe.
“(But) the problem I had in 1984 was that I had a year out with illness and it was not realistic to hope to win both. I was asked to decide which one I would want to win. My father (Peter Coe) was a racing cyclist as he would use the principle of using races to get race-fit. So microcosm. I raced myself fit over the 800s that I ran in the season, and then I had 36 hours and hoped that all the athletes coming fresh for the 1500 would not be strong enough on their final day which is only their third race as opposed to my seventh race.
“So although I was disappointed at losing the 800 at Moscow because I ran very badly, I got off the track at Los Angeles highly confident because (with 1:43 sec for silver) I was very confident there was nobody in the 1500m that had that current leg speed at 800m.
Of the mid-race pullout by Ovett in the same race, Coe said, “I knew he had been struggling and had arrived in Los Angeles with a respiratory problem and the atmosphere wasn't the kindest. It was disappointing to see him pull out with 300m to go. It would have been lovely to have got a (British) One, Two, Three. But, as long as I was in No 1 place. I can never be that charitable...”
(Former Sports Editor , Krishan Datta covered the 1980 and 1984 Olympic Games for The Times of India)