Sprint was his knicname at school - he is a polis now!

He is retired now.

I think Steve Ovett was more versatile, but we never saw the limit of his ability.

No way. Different eras but Peter Snell was better.

@@paulwilliams8389Hard to argue with Snells record in fairness.

Coe the best of all time .

He only had himself to blame - he knew the qualifying criteria but decided to go and do altitude training then didn't give his body enough time to readapt to running back and sea level and bombed out in the trials.

It wasn't the equivalent of the World Championships - there was only one athlete per continent per event so a lot of top athletes missed out or chose not to take part anyway. It was never regarded as anywhere near as important as the Olympics or the World Championships when they started.

Kerr Wightman Mills - 2024 could bring those glory days back!

Great sports writing, as well as great sports, back then!

The First Witness I don’t think so. I think Cram had picked up a small injury prior to this championships and could not replicate his form from the commonwealth games a few weeks earlier. If you watch the 1500 meters from the same championships where Cram gained revenge over Coe you’ll see after the race there is no hard feelings when Coe congratulates Cram .

@@darrenshaw767 Cram didn't have an injury leading up to the Europeans. His coach said in an interview with The Times on the eve of the Europeans that Cram was 'in the best shape of his life'. The Europeans had more intense rounds then the Commonwealths and the race here involved more changes in pace. Cram's last 200m here was 25.3, but he was made to run wide on the last bend and thus ran 2.5m extra than he did at the Commonwealths (25.0), when he was hard on the rails. 2.5m at that pace is worth 0.3secs, meaning Cram's speed here was exactly the same as it had been in Edinburgh. It just happened that Mckean, who ran almost an identical time here as in Edinburgh, ran the last 200m here in 25.1 (compared to 26.1 in the Commonwealths) as he was in much better form here. And Coe, who ran 11m extra on the bends, finished quicker than both of them - 24.8, running 3m wide, which is worth 0.4secs. So Coe was operating here at 24.4 speed for the last 200m in what would have been a 1:43 low time had he ran on the inside of lane 1. Of course this is all hyperthetical, but the point is, Cram hadn't gone backwards since Edinburgh, rather Coe was a better 800m runner and McKean had improved considerably to peak at these champs.

What if Coe was also in his prime?

I agree that he wouldn't have caught Ovett in his prime - my guess is that Coe would have been desperate to avoid the mistake of Moscow 1980 and give Ovett a 2-3 metre lead coming off the final bend!

Yes Coe was the best at 800 out of Coe cram and ovett but cram and ovett were 1500 specialist.. ovett during the late 70s was the best then cram mid 80s with Coe capable of winning at any of the 2 distances but 800 he would be the best of the time.. I loved cram and Ovett though

Coe, you have to remember is a very small guy for an 800m runner, he can't afford to jostle with the others, conservation of momentum works against him, he has less mass so he will lose more velocity. If you watch, he did the best he could to avoid any contact and just stay composed until a clear path opened up for him, which is the best he could do as the smaller guy.

Tactics were fine. Stayed close enough to a fast pace and used his superior speed.

You are right - it proved the correct tactic on the day but if Cram had been in the same razor sharp form he had been in a month earlier at the Commonwealth Games he wouldn't have been caught.

McKean was never at the level of a Coe/Cram/Ovett - he had a superb kick and was very dangerous at the European/Commonwealth level but looked a little bit lost at the very top level.

It was his last Championship gold, but hardly his 'last win'!

@@deano27671In a major competition.

@@deano27671but never a world or Olympic gold at 800m. He only ran once under 1.42 and once under 1.43, hardly one could say consistent. Very consistent at being injured or sick

@@APBCTechnique Twice under 1:43. lol :)That's two more than most. Plagued by bad luck, he did pretty good. Ovett never won an Olympic or World Champs 1500 title either. His World Cup win being the closest.

@@clutcher_rl. Got to remember there were no World Championships until 1983 - had there been biannual events like now in '77, '79 and '81 it's hard to imagine that Coe wouldn't have been 800m World Champion and Ovett 1500m champion at some point.

...and McKean whupped Cram here. Cram wasn't injured. He ran a bad race and McKean made him run wide on the last bend. Credit to Tom for running a great race.

@@tommytempo1 yep,tom had guts.he gets forgotton a bit like elliott

No, he wasn't injured. His coach said on the eve of the Europeans that Cram was in the best form of his career, in an interview with Pat Butcher in The Times. He also said a few depricating things about Coe and Ovett in that series of interviews in the Times. The difference was that McKean and Coe were peaking for the Europeans and the Scot in particular was in far better form by Stuttgart than he'd been in Edinburgh. In the Commonwealths he'd run a 26.1 last 200m in a 1:44.8, whereas here he ran a 25.1 last 200m in a 1:44.6. Cram was forced to run wide in lane 1 by McKean on the last bend, which he covered in 25.3 (with an extra 2.5m). In Edinburgh he'd run a 25.0 on the rails, so Cram was basically running as fast at the end of the Stuttgart race as he'd been in Edinburgh. He just looked so much better in Edinburgh because the opposition wasn't as good. Coe's last 200m in 24.8 was largely in lane 2 on the last bend, meaning he ran 3 -3.5m wide. That's 24.4 pace for 200m. And the conditions for that 800m final were dismal - cold, windy and wet.

@@deano27671 Did McKean get picked over Elliott for these Championships just because he had pipped him for Silver in Edinburgh? Or was Elliott injured anyway. If Elliott had been here Gb would still have had a 1 2 3 I fancy.

@@marketches1974 no, Elliott was not selected to run here, probably due to McKean beating his in Edinburgh.