Reliving an Iconic Rivalry: NLC Track Night Inspired by Coe vs. Ovett’s 1980 Olympic Battle

This Friday, our NLC Track session takes inspiration from one of the greatest showdowns in middle-distance history—the legendary Seb Coe vs. Steve Ovett clash in the 1980 Moscow Olympic 1500m final.

Join us as NLC Coach Matt Long takes us back to those unforgettable Games, sharing the story behind this epic rivalry and the inspiration for this week’s session!

Friday August 1, 1980

The gun goes and before the smoke has cleared, the BBCs David Coleman’s tongue fires – “Straub on the inside, going away and holding the kerb”. After the initial alactic surge and inevitable jockeying for position, the pace settles and the man who will present for the BBC for no less than 46 years observes that “Sebastian Coe cuts across from the outside and Steve Ovett tracking Sebastian Coe”. In what Seb Coe will describe as, “cold analytical factory language”, coach Peter Coe has read his son the proverbial riot act after a semi-final hiccup which could have seen him blocked off and reduced to an unwilling spectator in today’s race. Coe senior has demanded, “I don’t care if Steve Ovett runs off to the shitter, you are in there with him before you’ve even realised you’ve left the track”. But at this early stage, it’s the Brighton man following Seb to the washroom, rather than vice versa.

With 250m gone in this most uneventful of Olympic finals thus far, commentator Coleman depressingly observes that, “the pace is very slow indeed” but offers impatient viewers the carrot that, “it’s going to be last to the fast men in the closing stages as we suspected”. He then turns apologist and as a once promising miler himself, explains to those less initiated in the finer points of track and field that, “no one wants to sacrifice a chance of a medal. There’s no front runner involved in this race at all”. As they pass the marker with ‘three laps to go’, Coleman continues, “and it really is a jog”. Coe is on the shoulder of the reluctant leader Straub, while Ovett momentarily drifts back to sixth as 400m is reached in a pedestrian 61.82, prompting the alternative ITV commentary team to draw parallels with the kind of pace they expect to witness in the forthcoming women’s 1500m final. If Ovett the hawk has momentarily drifted off to sleep due to the sedentary pace, he’s back wide awake with his eyes fixed on his prey as Coleman notes “Steve Ovett, moving through to cover Sebastian Coe”.

As they enter the home straight for the penultimate time, Coleman turns patriot, reminding flag waving viewers that the collective ‘we’ have, “three Britons together – 2, 3 and 4”. This narrative will reach its climax on the last lap of the Los Angeles Olympic 1500m final four years later and it’s the precursor to the holy trinity of reverence to the collective of Ovett, Coe and Cram. The 800m mark is passed in an almost embarrassing 2:05.05 and Coleman instantaneously is a man alive as he wakes up to the fact that, “Straub can’t wait any longer. He knows the Britons have got the finish so he’s got to go”. The sudden surge in pace kick starts what Mel Watman will in AW describe tongue in cheek as, “the Olympic 700m championship”.

If Ovett and Coe are the Ali and Frazier of this fight then Straub is the proverbial heavyweight contender who lacks the one punch knockout of a sprint finish and is attempting to take the sting out of his opponents. He is hoping the strength endurance gained as a former steeplechaser will take him to the title on points. With a shrug of the shoulders, the East German will later admit: “They were all faster than me over the short sprint. So I had to work something out.” With the benefit of hindsight, in his 1984 autobiography Ovett will recall that Straub, “was the man who grabbed that race by the scruff of the neck and pulled us round”. With reference to the race rather than the man, Pat Butcher in The Perfect Distance will write that, “the torpor was suddenly shattered”. 

Coleman is now commentating on what he perceives to be a real footrace and not the weekend stroll which he has repeatedly apologised for, offering that, “Sebastian Coe in second place and he’s very comfortable”.  In contrast to the 800m final, Coe will recall, “it was a very smooth race. I was able to do what I’m best at – running freely and uncluttered, thanks to Straub”. During these mid race stages, while his body will be rooted on the Red Lenin track in Moscow, Coe’s mind is floating free and loose to a country road back in Sheffield, which he has covered hundreds of times in effecting back to back 800m repeats. “Although I was running in an Olympic final, to all intents and purposes I was out there on the Rivelin Valley road, with the old man in the car breathing down my neck”. 

1200m is passed in a now somewhat more respectable 2:59.44 with Coleman signifying that, “the long run for home is on. Straub kicking again”. The camera pans on to the facial expressions on the front three which betray the fact that they are now hurting after a third lap covered in an unprecedented 54 seconds. 

With 230m to go, Coleman is still unshakeable in his conviction that the hawk Ovett is, “watching Coe all the way,” with Coe later admitting to being acutely aware that his arch rival has the ability to, “historically put me in a box”.200m to go and Coleman salivates that, “this is the strike we want to see, can they outsprint each other? Which one is the faster?” This is the ‘big moment’ Coe will allude to 32 years later in Running My Life, where he will remind his readership that, “when it came to the big moments, they said I hadn’t got it”. The enormity of this moment for both athlete and human being cannot be overstated. 

With 150m remaining, Coleman notes that it’s “Ovett in the pulling position coming up to attack. There will be no waves I suspect today to the crowd”. If Ovett has taken on hawk-like qualities in the last three and a half minutes, with 100m to go, Coe is subliminally likened to an owl with his head seemingly turning 180 degrees to look back at his pursuer. Coleman screams “and there goes Coe. He’s looking for Ovett, wondering where he is and he’s right there behind him.” At this point something truly magical happens – it’s the kind of moment in sport that takes your breath away as you mutter ‘how on earth did they do that?’ With 80m to go, the owl-like Coe gives a nod to British Milers’ Club founder, Frank Horwill, and his multi-paced system by demonstrating a ‘double kick’ – the ability to sprint again off a pace already too hot for most to handle. In The Perfect Distance Butcher will recall that, “Peter Coe had seen it as the missing piece to the puzzle. And Seb was going to slot it into the final space”.  For those watching Seb’s final piece to complete the jigsaw is every bit as compelling viewing as the first time one remembers seeing a ‘Cruyff-turn’ in football or an ‘Ali-shuffle’ in boxing. It gives him a vital couple of yards over Straub and third-placed Ovett. This being said. while Horwill’s adopted system offers five gears, Coe will admit to the mental agony of those final few strides before the electronic clock stops at 3:38.4, conceding that, “if Steve had made it back to my shoulder, he would have gone on to win. I had run out of gears”.

So how did Coe train to do the above? Well you are going to experience an adaptation of the mode of session which he undertook:

NLC Friday night session. 31st January, 2025

RAMP warm up

30s @ 10 out of 10 RPE

60s @ 9 out of 10 RPE

90s @ 8 out of 10 RPE

2 mins @ 7 out of 10 RPE

Then back down pyramid. All off 2 mins walk recovery

5 mins rest

4 x 150m sprints off a whistle anywhere from 120 to 60m to go where the athlete effects a ‘double kick’

Cool down

So Coe’s application of multi-tier training often involved pyramid based work where 4 or even 5 gears were used in one single session, unlike the original approach espoused by Horwill. The ‘double kick’ which he effected in the most famous of races being articulated here will be rehearsed when you learn to ‘kick’ off an already fast surge and the coaching team will randomise when you do so through their use of the whistle. When might you use it? Well for example, you enter the last 200 metres of a park run and realise you are on for a potential course best so you start to sprint. As you turn the final bend and see the finish funnel again its useful to be able to kick again with just 60 metres or so left. 

Now back to the race!…..

With the finish line looming, Coleman suddenly realises a monumental upset could be on the cards, his voice rising with the statement that, “Ovett gathers himself on the near side, Straub on the far side. And could this be Ovett’s first defeat!?” Coleman cannot believe the drama which is unfolding before his eyes and he shockingly declares that, “Ovett is in trouble.” Ovett seems at this late stage to have abandoned the hunt for Coe in settling for bronze and will reflect that, “Seb had so much fear of defeat in him that he got past Straub and I could not”. Coleman’s voice reaches a crescendo with the sentence that, “Coe gets the revenge he wants”.

‘Ecstasy’, ‘elation’, ‘euphoria’, ‘revenge’ and ‘vindication’ are all words Coe himself will use to describe his feelings. This being said, no one word quite captures the essence of Coe’s innermost emotions as much of that of the ‘relief’ which he will repeatedly refer to over the years. The man so nearly martyred by the arrows of the tabloid press will prompt Pat Butcher to compare him with the early Christian Saint Sebastian (AD 256 – 288) in terms of the moment of his crossing of the line being representative of his, “crucifixion scene”. Armed with a Union Jack, Peter Coe is preparing to race on to the track to embrace his son and will further the biblical analogy by telling the arrow firing media, “you’ve seen an athlete come back from the grave”. It’s a miracle that he has resurrected his career with a phenomenal 1:33.5 for the last 700m. This is clearly a profoundly spiritual moment for the man who is now on his hands and knees on the track, appearing as if he is about to take Holy Communion after a confessional.

If you feel that the biblical analogy is being stretched a little too far, it’s worth considering that Coe’s repeated response of, “oh Christ!”, when he is later asked by Ron Pickering in an immediate trackside interview when he will race Ovett again, will invoke the wrath of the Bishop of Durham for his profanity. Meanwhile, back on the track, the maker but not the master of the race, silver medallist Straub, attempts to congratulate him but Coe is no longer in Moscow, nor is he running on the Rivelin Valley road back home. Spiritually, he is back at Lougborough University receiving his degree certificate in economics and social history. He will say, “it was just like I’d felt after getting my degree. I had done it and I would never have to do it again”. He had failed the 11-plus of the 800m final but come back to graduate with a 1st over 1500m and the honours degrees between himself and Ovett were now even.

Back on that Moscow track on August 1, 1980, as Coe awakens from his spiritual retreat, Ovett offers genuine congratulations with Watman noting that his, “sporting demeanour in defeat will have won him many friends”. Coe’s wide armed crucifix position has given way to wide armed aqua-planing as he flies round a well-earned lap of honour with Coleman shaking his head and reminding viewers that, “hardly anyone would tip him for this race but you don’t become a bad athlete in a week”. With Coe milking the celebrations, Coleman makes reference to the travelling British contingent of support and eulogises that, “the flags are out and no wonder – the medals shared”.

The above leaves us with the following questions for self-reflection:

  1. Why might working at more than one pace in a single session benefit my athletic development?
  2. How exactly can I engender a multi-paced ethos in my training?
  3. When might the habituation of a ‘double-kick’ be using in my racing? 

NLC Coach Matt Long has coached two athletes to become world champions and is a former winner of the British Milers’ Club annual Horwill Award for Coach Education Research, named after Frank Horwill who influenced Seb Coe in the type of session we are undertaking.   Note: An earlier version of this piece can be accessed through Long, M. (2020) ‘Remembering Seb Coe’s Moscow 1980 1500m win’. Athletics Weekly. August 1st