Lush
Mods' Pet
This, from 2000 in The Sunday Times
"Running rivalry that went the extra mile
THEY were as distinct as Apollo and Dionysus, as famous as Laurel and Hardy and as familiar as bacon and eggs. And like all great sporting double acts, you loved one and hated the other. Who else but Coe and Ovett? writes Pat Butcher, Sunday Times.
Seb was the good one, the boy who behaved himself. But, boy, could he run! Steve was Jack the Lad, the art student who tinkered with old sports cars, the chancer who gave the thumbs-up to the crowd and the V-sign to the press. In Montreal in 1976, Brendan Foster had won Britain's only Olympic athletics medal, a bronze. By the time of Moscow in 1980, it was a case of: "Who cares who came third?"
Then things began to change. Steve fell in love, and started writing in the sky to his now wife. Joe Public didn't know what to make of that, but Josephine Public loved it. Suddenly, Jack the Lad was the New Man. Seb, on the other hand, threw a wobbly or two, won the 1984 Olympic 1500ms and made rude gestures to the press box.
Their rivalry helped prompt a golden age for British middle-distance running. Coe and Ovett were only the principal peaks in a mountain range of talent in the late 1970s and 1980s, which included Steve Cram, Peter Elliott, Jack Buckner, Tom McKean and Tim Hutchings. They are gone, but the memory lingers on. Seb is now wearing ermine as Lord Coe, but what of Steve? He never did play the game, and he was not going to start now. For a man who refused to speak to the press for so long, many thought it hypocritical that he became a television commentator. But he was good. He still shows up on the circuit, even though his employers, ITV, lost the domestic broadcasting contract.
He moved from Brighton, where he'd been brought up, to the wilds of Scotland. He bought a mansion, turned it into a training centre and had four children, all daughters.
The waistline is fuller now and his hair has all but disappeared, but Ovett seems comfortable with that. He can be seen holding court in many a hotel lobby, studiously ignoring his old pal, the promoter Andy Norman, whose offer of money to Coe and him to race one last time in the British championships 10 years ago led to Ovett's career ending in tears.
But the bloody-mindedness surfaces occasionally. In 1994, there was a reunion of all the world-record milers since 1954, when Sir Roger Bannister first broke four minutes. Everybody was there, from Sir Roger to Noureddine Morceli, by way of Herb Elliott, Peter Snell, Michel Jazy and Kip Keino. Ovett was the only one who did not attend. He gave the same reason as he did for not being interviewed for this series on British Olympic champions: It's All History. So it is. Maybe he who makes history can afford to ignore it. "
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"Running rivalry that went the extra mile
THEY were as distinct as Apollo and Dionysus, as famous as Laurel and Hardy and as familiar as bacon and eggs. And like all great sporting double acts, you loved one and hated the other. Who else but Coe and Ovett? writes Pat Butcher, Sunday Times.
Seb was the good one, the boy who behaved himself. But, boy, could he run! Steve was Jack the Lad, the art student who tinkered with old sports cars, the chancer who gave the thumbs-up to the crowd and the V-sign to the press. In Montreal in 1976, Brendan Foster had won Britain's only Olympic athletics medal, a bronze. By the time of Moscow in 1980, it was a case of: "Who cares who came third?"
Then things began to change. Steve fell in love, and started writing in the sky to his now wife. Joe Public didn't know what to make of that, but Josephine Public loved it. Suddenly, Jack the Lad was the New Man. Seb, on the other hand, threw a wobbly or two, won the 1984 Olympic 1500ms and made rude gestures to the press box.
Their rivalry helped prompt a golden age for British middle-distance running. Coe and Ovett were only the principal peaks in a mountain range of talent in the late 1970s and 1980s, which included Steve Cram, Peter Elliott, Jack Buckner, Tom McKean and Tim Hutchings. They are gone, but the memory lingers on. Seb is now wearing ermine as Lord Coe, but what of Steve? He never did play the game, and he was not going to start now. For a man who refused to speak to the press for so long, many thought it hypocritical that he became a television commentator. But he was good. He still shows up on the circuit, even though his employers, ITV, lost the domestic broadcasting contract.
He moved from Brighton, where he'd been brought up, to the wilds of Scotland. He bought a mansion, turned it into a training centre and had four children, all daughters.
The waistline is fuller now and his hair has all but disappeared, but Ovett seems comfortable with that. He can be seen holding court in many a hotel lobby, studiously ignoring his old pal, the promoter Andy Norman, whose offer of money to Coe and him to race one last time in the British championships 10 years ago led to Ovett's career ending in tears.
But the bloody-mindedness surfaces occasionally. In 1994, there was a reunion of all the world-record milers since 1954, when Sir Roger Bannister first broke four minutes. Everybody was there, from Sir Roger to Noureddine Morceli, by way of Herb Elliott, Peter Snell, Michel Jazy and Kip Keino. Ovett was the only one who did not attend. He gave the same reason as he did for not being interviewed for this series on British Olympic champions: It's All History. So it is. Maybe he who makes history can afford to ignore it. "
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