Yes,,,beating Olaf beyer and willi wulbeck Was a big,BIG ACHIEVEMENT BACK IN 1979 SO SOON after that 1978 European championship crushing by Olaf and ovett,👍👌 you can see just how much it meant to seb,,,,even though he'd just became world record holder (1:42'33) 24'1 last 200m in lane two !!!!!!!!!! You just don't see that any more,,,over 40 year's later and you just don't see this anymore!!!!!! COE could have run 22'9/ ,23'0 in lane one if need be !!!!!!!! I N 1979 SEB was flying !!!!!!! Sprinting the last ,,,,200 way out in lane two in 24'1,,,,,, come on!!!!!!!!!!
This is the only race I have seen where Coe celebrated before he had won the race. Given that he never did it again, I wonder whether his dad Peter had a word with him about it :)
10 days after this Coe broke the 1500m WR, running solo over the last 800m. His speed (shown in 4x400)faster than it had been 7 weeks earlier in Oslo, he intended to have a crack at his own 800m WR in Brussels a week after Zurich. Fate intervened, however, as a few days before, while running in Hyde Park alongside a car for pace, he was stopped by the police wanting to know what he was up to. By the time they left, Coe' s muscles had cooled down & he got an injury as soon as he started running!
There is no one today that can run a last 200m (wide in lane 2) in 24.1 in a 1:47 race, or the last 100m (waving) in 11.9. If he had run the bend in lane 1 rather than lane 2, it would have been a last 200m of 23.6!! Meaning he ran the curve in approx 11.7. He could have run 1:41.0 late in 81, so now, with advances in training and faster tracks (not to mention competitors capable of running 1:43.0) he would be knocking on the door of 1:40 flat.
Infinite Heygtre agreed. I think he could have run 1:41 low in 81 with a few paced attempts later in the summer. With today’s faster tracks and spikes, more like 1:40.5-1:40.9.
Yeah, he loved running in Italy! He had a deal with Diadora after 84 Olympics and I think he had to run twice a year there as part of the sponsorship! Don't forgrt his World Cup win by over a second in Rome '81.
Devastating speed at the end, indeed. Unfortunately he made a terrible tactical choice in 1980 in Moscow and let Ovett ahead of him off too slow a pace. Ovett too had excellent speed and, though Coe was faster, Ovett's five meter lead with 150 to go proved too much for Seb to overcome. Nonetheless Seb was a wonder to watch and truly an all-time great.
That's 9 medals in 9 finals over 10 seasons. His only blip was his last race at 33 when he again suffered from a chest infection in the 90 Commonwealths. He was also ranked in the top 3 every year from 78 to 86, excluding 83. He ran his first sub 1:44 in 78 and his last 11 years later in 89. Longevity is an important criteria for determining greatness. If you weigh up everything, medals, records, ranking points, longevity, win/loss records against peers, etc, there isn't much in it.
About an hour after this (in what was the pre cursor to this Wkends' European Team Cup, only it had a far higher relevance in those days,..all the top names ran) Coe ran the anchor leg for the UK in the 4 x 400m relay, recording the fastest leg (45.5) on the team, even faster than Harold Schmid's (the fastest in the world over 400m that year at 44.92) 45.7 anchor. Even more impressive, none of the UK squad that ran in yesterday's competition ran faster, the quickest being 45.7 from C. Williams!
Yes I agree. In Turin he was head and shoulders above the rest and really could have won it however it was run. I don't think I've ever seen another athlete toy with a field, running a last 200 in 24.1 wide in lane 2 and easing off in the last 40m. Had he been on the inside and not eased off, it would have been around 23.5 in a 1:46. The difference in Moscow is that he stayed too far back with 400 to go, and ended up running about an extra 10m. You can't give Ovett a 10m lead in a slow 1st lap.
Coe did have to go wider in Moscow true - though the gap between him and the yugoslav going into the straight is comparable with Ovett. But the yugoslav was no Ovett! Coe could afford to sleep on a first lap and wake up with 200 to go in virtually every race he was running in 79-81 when he was at his best and still win - except the 1980 800 final.
@@LPCLASSICAL totally agree with you Stuart! Also, in this race the pace continued to dawdle until about the last 250-300m, whereas in Moscow, Warren really picked up the pace at the bell. Perhaps Coe felt no one was going to go that early!?
@@deano27671 Just watching it again. Coleman states that "Warren must make a long run for home". If Coleman knew - Coe should have been in position to react. He lost it on the back straight. Looks like the gap between him and Ovett was more like 4 metres as Coe got clear on the last bend where as in this race it was more like 2-3 metres. A messy first lap for Ovett and lucky not to be DQ but he was sharp on that 2nd lap not leaving anything to chance. I find it sad that Coe ran so badly as there was just this one chance to see them both in peak form in a major 800M final. Coe lost it as much as Ovett won it.
Coe tried to use the same tactics in Moscow, and it backfired. Hanging back and waiting to play his hand last, was a mistake, with someone as dangerous as ovett in the race
The problem with Moscow was 1. Ovett. 2. They blazed off from the bell, except Coe, who allowed a huge gap to open and didn't commit. He would have to have run around 49 seconds for the second lap and around 36 seconds for the last 300. Just not on. You can't win a 400m race at this level and give them a 10m start.
@@richard141724 I've never bought into the argument, that coe was nervous, and he let the occasion get to him. In my view he was guilty of complacency. He just meandered round, thinking he would sail past the other runners in the final 200 meters. I don't think coe and his old man really rated ovett, as an 800 meter runner.
Actually the field in Moscow wasn't any tougher, Ovett apart. The difference here was that the 3rd 200m didn't speed up as much as in Moscow, when Warren went really hard at the bell & Coe ran all the penultimate bend in lane 2 & 3 to stay in touch. Here he kept in touch with the leaders & was still fresh when the Yugoslav athlete kicked at about 250m. Coe knew he was much faster over the closing 200m. I agree he probably had the same idea in the Moscow final, but he didn't execute it the same.
I don't think it fitted in with Ovett's plans. As for Coe, he got injured in Hyde Park after his Zurich 1500 WR, when he was pulled over by a policeman! By the time he started running again his muscles had cooled down and he pulled a muscle. This prevented him attacking his own 800 WR in Brussels and competing in the World Cup.
In this comment you were probably comparing Coe's similar run in moscow and why from the same position - was left gasping by Ovett in the home straight. It didn't look like a wise plan in this race - despite his victory - he should have own by a much bigger margin had he placed himself on the shoulder of the leader - something an athlete of his calibre should be able to do.
Coe's last lap I make about 51.37. Compared to David rudisha's 51.63 last lap in his WR in 2012. If you ran the last laps of these two races side by side, with 200m to go, even 150m to go, Rudisha is about 15m up on Coe, and then Coe makes it all up and would scream past Rudisha, beating him by 2 1/2m. Mind you, we're not taking into account the effort put in on the first lap, where Rudisha runs 6.55 seconds faster than Coe here! I made a similar analysis on Juantorena's 1977 800m race too.
Yes of course, you can't really compare those 2 races, as Rudisa's was much faster on the first lap. I do think that even off a 55 first lap, Rudisha would have difficulty finishing as fast as Coe, 24.1 running about 3m wide, equivalent to more like 23.7, and 11.8, looking as relaxed and easing up at the finish!
Snell lost races when ill. It's just bad luck that one gets glandular fever at a major champs. Snell had 3 great seasons, 60, 62 & 64, winning 2 Olympic 800 golds and a Commonwealth. That's 3 finals. He also lost 4 800m races in a row in 61, so he wasn't unbeaten or unbeatable. Coe contested 9 finals in Championships or major IAAF events (Europa & World Cups); from winning the European indoors in 77 in near world record time to winning the Europeans in 86, and never failed to win a medal.
I just watched an interesting upload of the 1500M world cup in Montreal, won by Wessinhage. Why was Ovett not representing europe there? And where was Coe in the 800?
@gracko14 OK. Better late than never. Coe: fabulous WR, still UK NR 30 years later, two OG silvers (at 800). Snell: fabulous WR, still NZ NR 50 years later, two OG golds (at 800). Coe: some great victories but also some losses e.g. EC 800 78, 82. Snell: never beaten in major contests at either 800 or 1500/mile. Coe: one of the greatest ever. Snell: the greatest 800m runner of all time.
This is one of the fastest finishes of all time in any 800, yes. Coe was simply amazing coming off his 45.5 400meter relay leg in this same competition. Ovett was disturbed enough by this run to have mentally ceded the 800 in Moscow before he even ran. But as is often the case here, Deano is out of hand with his claim. Peter Snell is the greatest 800m runner ever, not Coe. We all know why.
@KingLiopleurodon Snell has a very good claim to being the greatest 800m runner ever I grant you. But the middle distance scene was far greater in depth of talent in the early 80's than it had been in the early 60's. Snell never faced a peak Elliott or Ryun, whereas Coe had to compete against other all time greats, Cram & Ovett. Coe lost the European 82 race because he was ill.
Sublime! Coe at his absolute best. In this form no one could beat him then or since! 24.1 for last 200m running wide and 11.9 for last 100m!
Greatest 800m runner ever! At his best there has been no one since that could beat him.
Unusual to see Coe celebrating as he crosses the line.
Yes,,,beating Olaf beyer and willi wulbeck Was a big,BIG ACHIEVEMENT BACK IN 1979 SO SOON after that 1978 European championship crushing by Olaf and ovett,👍👌 you can see just how much it meant to seb,,,,even though he'd just became world record holder (1:42'33) 24'1 last 200m in lane two !!!!!!!!!! You just don't see that any more,,,over 40 year's later and you just don't see this anymore!!!!!! COE could have run 22'9/ ,23'0 in lane one if need be !!!!!!!! I N 1979 SEB was flying !!!!!!! Sprinting the last ,,,,200 way out in lane two in 24'1,,,,,, come on!!!!!!!!!!
Coe the greatest 800 meter runner - what a joy to watch
Its good to see Coe demolishing Beyer.
This is the only race I have seen where Coe celebrated before he had won the race. Given that he never did it again, I wonder whether his dad Peter had a word with him about it :)
I used to be able to run just under 11 secs for the 100m (1978) but I doubt I could keep up with this pace for even 50m now.
10 days after this Coe broke the 1500m WR, running solo over the last 800m. His speed (shown in 4x400)faster than it had been 7 weeks earlier in Oslo, he intended to have a crack at his own 800m WR in Brussels a week after Zurich. Fate intervened, however, as a few days before, while running in Hyde Park alongside a car for pace, he was stopped by the police wanting to know what he was up to. By the time they left, Coe' s muscles had cooled down & he got an injury as soon as he started running!
Wulbeck's finish is also very impressive here. I sign of things to come.
There is no one today that can run a last 200m (wide in lane 2) in 24.1 in a 1:47 race, or the last 100m (waving) in 11.9. If he had run the bend in lane 1 rather than lane 2, it would have been a last 200m of 23.6!! Meaning he ran the curve in approx 11.7. He could have run 1:41.0 late in 81, so now, with advances in training and faster tracks (not to mention competitors capable of running 1:43.0) he would be knocking on the door of 1:40 flat.
I predict he would be mid 1 40, 1 40 flat would be way too insane
Infinite Heygtre agreed. I think he could have run 1:41 low in 81 with a few paced attempts later in the summer. With today’s faster tracks and spikes, more like 1:40.5-1:40.9.
Love it, thanks for sharing Keith!
Yeah, he loved running in Italy! He had a deal with Diadora after 84 Olympics and I think he had to run twice a year there as part of the sponsorship! Don't forgrt his World Cup win by over a second in Rome '81.
Devastating speed at the end, indeed. Unfortunately he made a terrible tactical choice in 1980 in Moscow and let Ovett ahead of him off too slow a pace. Ovett too had excellent speed and, though Coe was faster, Ovett's five meter lead with 150 to go proved too much for Seb to overcome. Nonetheless Seb was a wonder to watch and truly an all-time great.
That's 9 medals in 9 finals over 10 seasons. His only blip was his last race at 33 when he again suffered from a chest infection in the 90 Commonwealths. He was also ranked in the top 3 every year from 78 to 86, excluding 83. He ran his first sub 1:44 in 78 and his last 11 years later in 89. Longevity is an important criteria for determining greatness. If you weigh up everything, medals, records, ranking points, longevity, win/loss records against peers, etc, there isn't much in it.
He was playing with the rest of the field here. Rare to see an athlete with such blatant confidence, knowing he would win whatever the pace was.
About an hour after this (in what was the pre cursor to this Wkends' European Team Cup, only it had a far higher relevance in those days,..all the top names ran) Coe ran the anchor leg for the UK in the 4 x 400m relay, recording the fastest leg (45.5) on the team, even faster than Harold Schmid's (the fastest in the world over 400m that year at 44.92) 45.7 anchor. Even more impressive, none of the UK squad that ran in yesterday's competition ran faster, the quickest being 45.7 from C. Williams!
Yes I agree. In Turin he was head and shoulders above the rest and really could have won it however it was run. I don't think I've ever seen another athlete toy with a field, running a last 200 in 24.1 wide in lane 2 and easing off in the last 40m. Had he been on the inside and not eased off, it would have been around 23.5 in a 1:46. The difference in Moscow is that he stayed too far back with 400 to go, and ended up running about an extra 10m. You can't give Ovett a 10m lead in a slow 1st lap.
Coe did have to go wider in Moscow true - though the gap between him and the yugoslav going into the straight is comparable with Ovett. But the yugoslav was no Ovett! Coe could afford to sleep on a first lap and wake up with 200 to go in virtually every race he was running in 79-81 when he was at his best and still win - except the 1980 800 final.
@@LPCLASSICAL totally agree with you Stuart! Also, in this race the pace continued to dawdle until about the last 250-300m, whereas in Moscow, Warren really picked up the pace at the bell. Perhaps Coe felt no one was going to go that early!?
@@deano27671 Just watching it again. Coleman states that "Warren must make a long run for home". If Coleman knew - Coe should have been in position to react. He lost it on the back straight. Looks like the gap between him and Ovett was more like 4 metres as Coe got clear on the last bend where as in this race it was more like 2-3 metres. A messy first lap for Ovett and lucky not to be DQ but he was sharp on that 2nd lap not leaving anything to chance. I find it sad that Coe ran so badly as there was just this one chance to see them both in peak form in a major 800M final. Coe lost it as much as Ovett won it.
Coe tried to use the same tactics in Moscow, and it backfired. Hanging back and waiting to play his hand last, was a mistake, with someone as dangerous as ovett in the race
The problem with Moscow was 1. Ovett. 2. They blazed off from the bell, except Coe, who allowed a huge gap to open and didn't commit. He would have to have run around 49 seconds for the second lap and around 36 seconds for the last 300. Just not on. You can't win a 400m race at this level and give them a 10m start.
@@richard141724 I've never bought into the argument, that coe was nervous, and he let the occasion get to him. In my view he was guilty of complacency. He just meandered round, thinking he would sail past the other runners in the final 200 meters. I don't think coe and his old man really rated ovett, as an 800 meter runner.
Actually the field in Moscow wasn't any tougher, Ovett apart. The difference here was that the 3rd 200m didn't speed up as much as in Moscow, when Warren went really hard at the bell & Coe ran all the penultimate bend in lane 2 & 3 to stay in touch. Here he kept in touch with the leaders & was still fresh when the Yugoslav athlete kicked at about 250m. Coe knew he was much faster over the closing 200m. I agree he probably had the same idea in the Moscow final, but he didn't execute it the same.
I don't think it fitted in with Ovett's plans. As for Coe, he got injured in Hyde Park after his Zurich 1500 WR, when he was pulled over by a policeman! By the time he started running again his muscles had cooled down and he pulled a muscle. This prevented him attacking his own 800 WR in Brussels and competing in the World Cup.
A agree, athletics was different back then, it had personalities. Today there's too much money involved and it's lost it's heart.
In this comment you were probably comparing Coe's similar run in moscow and why from the same position - was left gasping by Ovett in the home straight. It didn't look like a wise plan in this race - despite his victory - he should have own by a much bigger margin had he placed himself on the shoulder of the leader - something an athlete of his calibre should be able to do.
To beat the person that had beaten coe and ovett in last year European championship 800 metres, you could see how much it means
11.8 last 100m, easing off at the finish!
Coe's last lap I make about 51.37. Compared to David rudisha's 51.63 last lap in his WR in 2012. If you ran the last laps of these two races side by side, with 200m to go, even 150m to go, Rudisha is about 15m up on Coe, and then Coe makes it all up and would scream past Rudisha, beating him by 2 1/2m.
Mind you, we're not taking into account the effort put in on the first lap, where Rudisha runs 6.55 seconds faster than Coe here!
I made a similar analysis on Juantorena's 1977 800m race too.
Yes of course, you can't really compare those 2 races, as Rudisa's was much faster on the first lap.
I do think that even off a 55 first lap, Rudisha would have difficulty finishing as fast as Coe, 24.1 running about 3m wide, equivalent to more like 23.7, and 11.8, looking as relaxed and easing up at the finish!
Snell lost races when ill. It's just bad luck that one gets glandular fever at a major champs. Snell had 3 great seasons, 60, 62 & 64, winning 2 Olympic 800 golds and a Commonwealth. That's 3 finals. He also lost 4 800m races in a row in 61, so he wasn't unbeaten or unbeatable. Coe contested 9 finals in Championships or major IAAF events (Europa & World Cups); from winning the European indoors in 77 in near world record time to winning the Europeans in 86, and never failed to win a medal.
I just watched an interesting upload of the 1500M world cup in Montreal, won by Wessinhage. Why was Ovett not representing europe there? And where was Coe in the 800?
COE WAS INJURED!!!!!!!
@gracko14 OK. Better late than never. Coe: fabulous WR, still UK NR 30 years later, two OG silvers (at 800). Snell: fabulous WR, still NZ NR 50 years later, two OG golds (at 800). Coe: some great victories but also some losses e.g. EC 800 78, 82. Snell: never beaten in major contests at either 800 or 1500/mile. Coe: one of the greatest ever. Snell: the greatest 800m runner of all time.
i think Coe at his best could have challenged Snell.
This is one of the fastest finishes of all time in any 800, yes. Coe was simply amazing coming off his 45.5 400meter relay leg in this same competition. Ovett was disturbed enough by this run to have mentally ceded the 800 in Moscow before he even ran.
But as is often the case here, Deano is out of hand with his claim. Peter Snell is the greatest 800m runner ever, not Coe. We all know why.
David Rudisha
Says a lot about how athletics has changed. Back marker at the bell look like he was struggling and he can't have done any more than a 60 second lap!
I wish I had been that standard. I could have cleaned up at local level.
@KingLiopleurodon Snell has a very good claim to being the greatest 800m runner ever I grant you. But the middle distance scene was far greater in depth of talent in the early 80's than it had been in the early 60's. Snell never faced a peak Elliott or Ryun, whereas Coe had to compete against other all time greats, Cram & Ovett. Coe lost the European 82 race because he was ill.
Lance Armstrong of the track world!
John Rogan dick head !!!!!!