Coe, McKean & Cram - European 800m Final, Stuttgart 1986.

[@kevinkilduff2064]

Not unlike his 1500m Olympic win in '84, Seb's finishing speed is incomparable. The man is barely out of breath after this race! At his best NOBODY was better than Seb. His final 150m kick is the best in middle distance history. What a golden age for British running.

[@Alex-pr6zv]

Funny how the long distances have moved into a new realm - the marathon world record has come down 7 minutes since 1986 - but performances of this calibre would still win you a major 800m title in 2024.

[@68munki]

What a wonderful sight the 3 brits all flying at the front.

[@younglock5499]

Brilliant upload...The Bellshill bullet.

[@frankkrank3970]

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

[@tommytempo1]

He is retired now.

[@stevenandrewills9500]

The great David coleman commentating

[@markfox1545]

He came out with some great lines - my favourite was when he said, "The big Cuban comes round the final bend, opens his legs and shows his class." 😅

[@deansiephillips437]

This was a brilliant race ...one of the best for its time !@

[@jamesmcguire1608]

Coe the greatest middle distance runner ever.

[@Ruda-n4h]

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

[@paulwilliams8389]

No way. Different eras but Peter Snell was better.

[@johnmc3862]

@@paulwilliams8389Hard to argue with Snells record in fairness.

[@Kevin-lf4xx]

Coe the best of all time .

[@cbrend22]

@@Ruda-n4hno

[@Ruda-n4h]

All this talk of Coe never winning a major title at 800m before this was not true. He win the World Cup in 1981 which at that time was the equivalent of the World Championships now.

[@paulwilliams8389]

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.

[@streetsmart73]

COE FOREVER. Well done, Brits 👍👍👍👍👍

[@rc2869]

And here comes Coe...

[@edjacobs6897]

He lost the 800 in Moscow because of a bad tactical race but he redeems himself here brilliantly, " simply the best!

[@paulhenryangus5638]

Pure class.

[@andreaselleri400]

Sebastian Coe fenomeno!!

[@Bungadin2845]

Coe ran the same race here as the 1980 Olympic 800 m final. Great recovery over the last 100 metres but Ovett in his prime would have beaten him again…….but then if my auntie had b***s she would be my uncle.

[@clutcher_rl.]

What if Coe was also in his prime?

[@paulwilliams8389]

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!

[@harnitb]

Criminal he wasnt selected for the Olympics in 1988. He lost in the heats at the UK due to ill health.. He delivered in 1984 even though he didn't win the Trials

[@paulwilliams8389]

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.

[@bfc3057]

He was 4 years older and didn't cut it in 1988. He ran very well in 1989 but wasn't in shape when it mattered in 1988. There are different versions of what was the problem, flu was another one

[@joejoejoe4577]

This summed up the British 800/1500 world domination through most of the 80s.

[@joedrumer9029]

Coe made a great tactical win 👍

[@TheSecondWitness]

Great to see the whole lead up to the race and the aftermath. Coe and Cram always get along, but I don’t see any interaction between the two here... I hope there was no bad feelings between.

[@darrenshaw767]

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 .

[@deano27671]

@@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.

[@patsquires3654]

just to give some idea how good seb coe was, he won this euro champs 800m in a fast 1.44.5 a time that was faster then the olympic 800m in moscow, in 1981 seb coe broke the 1000m world record, going through the first 800m in 1,44. 5 and then kept going for another 200m to smash his own 1000m world record, WOW that is reel running

[@markfox1545]

Reel?

[@ThankGodForJesusChrist]

Well done Seb "800m title" Coe 🥇

[@paulwhite2533]

the europeans seem somehow different to today's europeans

[@tommytempo1]

No Russians, no East Germans, I would like to think that the number of doping athletes has reduced nowadays but remain to be convinced! The European Championships were held every four years back then and were the major athletics event of the year, along with the Commonwealth Games. Nowadays, the Europeans are now held every two years and have been somewhat diluted in quality. The Europeans now take place in an Olympic year resulting in some top athletes opting to miss the championships and making the Olympics the priority.

[@markfox1545]

Indeed, Paul...

[@chrisab66]

Seem to remember this being likened to "Three Spitfires Coming Out of the Sun". What an era for British Middle Distance running sadly long gone. Great race by Coe considering getting older and having Cram ahead of him, which Coe himself admitted was not a good tactic with Crammy. Showed a few days later with Cram ahead in the 1500 m and Coe couldn't catch him.

[@malcolmdown8745]

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

[@ChrisJ294]

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

[@stewartwest347]

Love the way Coleman had to explain why Coe won :)

[@martinbarnaby]

Quality

[@KryptonitetoallBS]

Coe won this race despite making a mess of it tactically, yet again. His decision to follow Cram through on the back straight ( where he was jostled) and his pure speed saved the day for him. He ran much wider ( and therefore much further) than his main rivals. And even taking all of that into consideration a fully fit Cram had no answer when Coe asked the question!!!

[@GN-qx5fl]

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

[@jonathanhockey9943]

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.

[@clutcher_rl.]

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

[@paulwilliams8389]

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.

[@alexf7377]

Tom McKean was always about racing and tactics, and had a good career out of that. If only he had more flat speed. Coe needed everything to get past him.

[@matthewsenior4208]

Cram looked like a sore loser coming out for the medals, bit like Coe did in 80 for the 800. McKean always ran well at the Europeans but never transferred it outdoors in the Worlds.

[@paulwilliams8389]

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.

[@AgnesOctavia4]

Seb channeling The Head Waiter.

[@mohamedzerouali1681]

L époque d or britannique

[@chrissheridan7401]

russian dude was rogues gallery.

[@APBCTechnique]

Coe’s last win before his decline.

[@deano27671]

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

[@johnmc3862]

@@deano27671In a major competition.

[@APBCTechnique]

@@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

[@clutcher_rl.]

@@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.

[@paulwilliams8389]

@@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.

[@glennthompson1971]

When Brits ruled the middle distance track events

[@joemcm1]

and yet cram whupped mckean at the 86 commonwealth . im going to check my books,was cram coming off an injury in this one?

[@tommytempo1]

...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.

[@joemcm1]

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

[@deano27671]

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.

[@marketches1974]

@@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.

[@deano27671]

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

[@brenwalsh9232]

All with strong legs with 200 to go, nobody beats Coe