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Steve Ovett
Stephen Michael James Ovett, OBE (/oʊˈvɛt/; born 9 October 1955) is a retired British track athlete. A middle-distance runner, he was the gold medalist in the 800 metres at the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow. Ovett set five world records for 1500 metres and the mile run, and a world best at two miles. He won 45 consecutive 1500 and mile races from 1977 to 1980.
Born in Brighton, Sussex, and educated at Varndean Grammar School, Ovett was a talented teenage athlete. As a youngster, he showed great promise as a footballer, but gave it up for athletics, because he preferred individual rather than team sports.[citation needed] As a youngster he won the under-15 (Junior boys) English Schools' Athletics Championships title at 400 metres in 1970 and the under-17 (Intermediate boys) 800 metres title in 1972.
Ovett's first major athletics title came in 1973, when he won the 800 metres at the 1973 European Athletics Junior Championships. The following year, still only aged 18, he won the silver medal at 800 metres in the 1974 European Athletics Championships, setting a new European Junior 800 m record of 1:45.77 in the process. Ovett won AAA titles in the 800 m from 1974 to 1976; he would later add to these AAA titles by winning the 1500 m in 1979 and the mile in 1980.
Ovett gained some Olympic experience in 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, when he ran in the final of the 800 m and was placed fifth, behind winner Alberto Juantorena of Cuba. Ovett finished fifth because he ran the first lap too inconsistently. He failed to reach the 1500 m final, having been obstructed in the semi-final when Canadian athlete Dave Hill fell and Ovett had to hurdle over him. As this happened 170 m from the finish, Ovett had little time to recover, and was out-sprinted to the line by fellow countryman, Dave Moorcroft, with Ovett finishing only sixth.
In 1977, Ovett began to regularly defeat the 1500 metres Olympic champion John Walker. In the early season Debenhams Mile, Ovett defeated Walker and set a British record of 3:54.7. Then in the European Cup 1500 m, Ovett produced a last lap of 52.4 seconds to win a fiercely competitive race just ahead of his friend and rival Thomas Wessinghage. At the inaugural IAAF World Cup in Athletics, he commenced a "kick" with 200 m to go, running the final turn in 11.8 s and the last 200 m in 25.1 s. He left John Walker and the rest of the field far behind. He won gold ahead of Wessinghage. As Ovett raced away from the field, Ron Pickering, commenting for the race on BBC Television, said "and there's one man's blazing speed that has torn this field asunder". Ovett's time of 3:34.45 was a British record.[citation needed]
The British public by now showed a keen interest in Ovett, and it was at the European Championships in 1978, that he raced against Sebastian Coe for the first time in their senior careers, beginning a rivalry that was widely covered. He led Coe in the 800 m and appeared to be on his way to gold, before being caught by the East German Olaf Beyer, whose time of 1:44:09 turned out to be his fastest ever 800 m run. Coe finished 3rd. At the time the British press reported that Coe and Ovett had clashed after the race but Coe later revealed: "When Steve came over, he put his hand on my shoulder and said something. The media thought we were having a row, but what Steve actually said was, 'Who the fuck was that?'" Ovett recovered to win the gold medal in the 1500 m, in which Coe did not participate. In that race, Ovett waved to the crowd on the home straight and clearly slowed down in the last metres yet still won by over a second from Ireland's Eamonn Coghlan.
In 1978, Ovett set extremely fast times at disparate distances. He ran an 800 m in 1:44.09 (the world record at the time was Alberto Juantorena's 1:43.44) and set a 2-mile world's best with 8:13.51, handing Track & Field News Athlete of the Year Henry Rono one of his few losses in his record-breaking season.
During his career, Ovett was noted for the unusual range of his races; shortly before the 1980 Olympics, he ran four events of four different lengths in 10 days: a mile in Oslo, 800 metres in Gothenburg, 600 m at Crystal Palace and 3000 m in Welwyn Garden City. In 1977, when an airline strike forced him to miss a scheduled event, he signed up at the last minute for the Dartford half-marathon and won it with ease, wearing borrowed shoes, in a time of 1:05:38, running a course more than twice as long as anything he had attempted in public before, against the British marathon champion.
Steve Ovett
Stephen Michael James Ovett, OBE (/oʊˈvɛt/; born 9 October 1955) is a retired British track athlete. A middle-distance runner, he was the gold medalist in the 800 metres at the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow. Ovett set five world records for 1500 metres and the mile run, and a world best at two miles. He won 45 consecutive 1500 and mile races from 1977 to 1980.
Born in Brighton, Sussex, and educated at Varndean Grammar School, Ovett was a talented teenage athlete. As a youngster, he showed great promise as a footballer, but gave it up for athletics, because he preferred individual rather than team sports.[citation needed] As a youngster he won the under-15 (Junior boys) English Schools' Athletics Championships title at 400 metres in 1970 and the under-17 (Intermediate boys) 800 metres title in 1972.
Ovett's first major athletics title came in 1973, when he won the 800 metres at the 1973 European Athletics Junior Championships. The following year, still only aged 18, he won the silver medal at 800 metres in the 1974 European Athletics Championships, setting a new European Junior 800 m record of 1:45.77 in the process. Ovett won AAA titles in the 800 m from 1974 to 1976; he would later add to these AAA titles by winning the 1500 m in 1979 and the mile in 1980.
Ovett gained some Olympic experience in 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, when he ran in the final of the 800 m and was placed fifth, behind winner Alberto Juantorena of Cuba. Ovett finished fifth because he ran the first lap too inconsistently. He failed to reach the 1500 m final, having been obstructed in the semi-final when Canadian athlete Dave Hill fell and Ovett had to hurdle over him. As this happened 170 m from the finish, Ovett had little time to recover, and was out-sprinted to the line by fellow countryman, Dave Moorcroft, with Ovett finishing only sixth.
In 1977, Ovett began to regularly defeat the 1500 metres Olympic champion John Walker. In the early season Debenhams Mile, Ovett defeated Walker and set a British record of 3:54.7. Then in the European Cup 1500 m, Ovett produced a last lap of 52.4 seconds to win a fiercely competitive race just ahead of his friend and rival Thomas Wessinghage. At the inaugural IAAF World Cup in Athletics, he commenced a "kick" with 200 m to go, running the final turn in 11.8 s and the last 200 m in 25.1 s. He left John Walker and the rest of the field far behind. He won gold ahead of Wessinghage. As Ovett raced away from the field, Ron Pickering, commenting for the race on BBC Television, said "and there's one man's blazing speed that has torn this field asunder". Ovett's time of 3:34.45 was a British record.[citation needed]
The British public by now showed a keen interest in Ovett, and it was at the European Championships in 1978, that he raced against Sebastian Coe for the first time in their senior careers, beginning a rivalry that was widely covered. He led Coe in the 800 m and appeared to be on his way to gold, before being caught by the East German Olaf Beyer, whose time of 1:44:09 turned out to be his fastest ever 800 m run. Coe finished 3rd. At the time the British press reported that Coe and Ovett had clashed after the race but Coe later revealed: "When Steve came over, he put his hand on my shoulder and said something. The media thought we were having a row, but what Steve actually said was, 'Who the fuck was that?'" Ovett recovered to win the gold medal in the 1500 m, in which Coe did not participate. In that race, Ovett waved to the crowd on the home straight and clearly slowed down in the last metres yet still won by over a second from Ireland's Eamonn Coghlan.
In 1978, Ovett set extremely fast times at disparate distances. He ran an 800 m in 1:44.09 (the world record at the time was Alberto Juantorena's 1:43.44) and set a 2-mile world's best with 8:13.51, handing Track & Field News Athlete of the Year Henry Rono one of his few losses in his record-breaking season.
During his career, Ovett was noted for the unusual range of his races; shortly before the 1980 Olympics, he ran four events of four different lengths in 10 days: a mile in Oslo, 800 metres in Gothenburg, 600 m at Crystal Palace and 3000 m in Welwyn Garden City. In 1977, when an airline strike forced him to miss a scheduled event, he signed up at the last minute for the Dartford half-marathon and won it with ease, wearing borrowed shoes, in a time of 1:05:38, running a course more than twice as long as anything he had attempted in public before, against the British marathon champion.
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