Unfortunately the article in yesterdays paper isn’t available online 
so I will put some of the interesting points from that and his speech on Friday here.
He had asthma problems as a child and at Los Angeles he (and a number of other athletes) had major problems with the smog. He ended up in hospital after most of his races.
He first broke the 4min mile barrier at 19 (pretty sure it was that, certainly in teens). He finished about 1/2 a meter behind someone who ran 3.58 something. but was given 4.00.00 as they said it was impossible to run sub 4 mins as he was too young to have achieved it. He got sent a sub 4 min mile club tie by Roger Bannister but then got a letter a few weeks later saying as it was exactly 4 mins he had to send the tie back :eek:
The whole Ovett V Coe rivalry was pretty much a beat up by the media. It was a friendly rivalry rather than animosity and they get on pretty well now. They only raced each other on the track 5 or 6 times. This wasn’t due to them avoiding each other but different prep. Coe was mainly a sprinter and indoor runner who came into the season very race fit. Ovett was more a cross country / road runner who came into the season strong but not very fast and it took him a long time to get into racing shape to run a decent mile or 800m. It would have been stupid for him to have try and tackle Coe early in the season. They raced in cross country and road races and Ovett won every one of those.
He got offside with the media as for a few years he refused to go to press conferences as the reporters hardly knew anything about the sport or races and it was a waste of his time.
He made a huge tactical error in the 800m at the Montreal Olympics in 1976. It was the only time they ran it where you had to stay in your lane for 1st 400m He drew lane 8 and at the end of the 400m he didn’t switch across fast enough and was too far back, to catch up, he finished 4th (I think).
When asked about the Moscow Olympics and pressure not to go he said he is a selfish person and had trained too hard not to go. There have been boycotts before and after Moscow but no one really remembers them, people just remember the record books.
He and Coe stole a march on the competition for a few years as they trained harder and it took them a year or so to catch up. They (C&O) won a lot of races because the others couldn’t match them in fitness or speed. But after 2 or 3 years the others caught up. If you raise the bar, people rise to that. After that competition became pretty tough and races harder to win.
The UK is not producing world-class middle distance athletes (same for sprinters???) as the work ethic has gone. Athletes today want results and expect it to be given to them on a plate. When he was competing they didn’t expect anything, they trained hard because they enjoyed it. It was what you had to do to produce success. Earning a living from it was a bonus. Now there so much publicity about money that young runners think about how much they can earn and get side tracked into thinking about that and not getting the results first.
What is needed to beat the African domination? Run faster! There is no other secret formula. You just have to train and race harder.
His favourite world record ( he set 6) was his first, which was 2 miles in 8.13.51 in 1978 at Crystal Palace. He had won the 800m at the European Champs 10 days earlier and was pretty tired. The officials put on an event they thought would be an easy win in front of a home crowd but at the last minute they told him Henry Rono was in the race. He knew he couldn’t back down and pull out and he just tried to hang on as best he could as Rono battled it out up front. All he remembers was the noise of the crowd just going and going as they were on their feet chanting with 3 laps to go. He was frightened to stop trying as if he did everyone would think it was a disappointing season even though he had won the Euro title. He hung on and passed Rono in the home straight. He didn’t realise it was a WR till told he thought Thank God for that because it felt pretty tough
He got into middle distance and met his coach, Harry Wilson, as a 15 year old when he was invited to a training camp. He caught the wrong train and was late. The first person he met was Wilson and Ovett told him he was in the sprinting group. Wilson told him it was full but took pity on him and told him to join his middle distance group. He had trained as a sprinter and wasn’t used to 1000m reps with short recovery. On the 3rd one he lost consciousness and didn’t remember much after that. :eek: When he came to and the mist cleared he remembers Wilson leaning over him as he was vomiting violently on the ground. Wilson told him he has a future in middle distance running. 
One week he thought he would see how far he could run and started off running 15 miles (24k) in morning and 15 later on in the day. The first few days were pretty tough but after that it became not too bad. He eventually did 225 miles (400k) and could have done that on a regular basis but thought’ what’s the point?’ too many athletes nowadays are overcoached and told exactly what to do. They need to find out more about themselves.
Sun 21 May
Sleep
8 glorious hours 
Tempo
- = 30 sec rest
100+100+100++
100+100+200+100++
100+100+200+100++
100+100+100++
lowered volume by 600m than usual.
Rating
7
