The Perfect Distance: Ovett and Coe: The Record Breaking Rivalry - Hardcover

Butcher, Pat

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0297847457 ISBN 13: 9780297847458

Publisher: Orion, 2004

Synopsis

Steve Ovett and Sebastian Coe presided over the golden era of British athletics. Between them they won three Olympic gold medals, two silvers, one bronze, and broke a total of twelve middle-distance records. They were part of the landscape of the late seventies and early eighties -- both household names, their exploits were watched by millions (in an age before video, satellite and Sky Sports, the BBC Nine O'Clock News was often interrupted to accommodate their successes). As far apart as possible in terms of class and upbringing -- Ovett is the art student, the long-haired son of a market-trader from Brighton, a natural athlete; Coe's formative years were spent under the rigorous training routine of Peter Coe, a self-taught trainer who referred to his son as 'my athlete' -- their rivalry burned as intense on the track as away from it. The pendulum swung between the pair of them -- each breaking the other's records, and, memorably, triumphing in each other's events in Moscow in 1980 -- for the best part of a decade, until the final showdown at the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984 . . .

Twenty years on, Pat Butcher, a runner himself and athletics correspondent of The Times in the eighties, has spoken at length to both athletes; to Coe, the Tory MP, and to Ovett, whom he tracked down in Australia. He writes in depth about the British obsession with and dominance of middle-distance running, the mile, and speaks to many of the great 'milers' down the years, the likes of the Swedes Gunder Hägg and Arne Andersson, John Walker and, of course, Roger Bannister. The Perfect Distance is both a detailed re-creation and a fitting celebration of the greatest era of British athletics.

About this title

Review

Meticulously written. (OBSERVER)

Butcher relives a Golden Age. (SUNDAY TIMES)

There are precious few good books on athletics but this study of the intertwined careers of Seb Coe and Steve Ovett is an exception. Drawing on a wide range of interviews and original research, the author brilliantly recaptures the dramatic tension of the battles between these two giants of the track...In addition to analysing the qualities of talent, ambition and ruthless determination that made them so special, Pat Butcher is excellent on the contrasts in their personalities. (SUNDAY TELEGRAPH)

A beautifully researched account. (Mike Rowbottom INDEPENDENT (14.12.04))

an inspiring read. (RUNNER'S WORLD (1.11.04))

Few athletes have captured the world's attention as did Sebastian Coe and Steve Ovett in the early 1980s... it was their fierce rivalry, more redolent of prefessional boxing that middle-glass running, that transformed their clashes at the Olympics into unmissable events. A runner himself, Pat Butcher has chronicled the way these two swift men spurred each other to glory and redefined their sport in the process, though ultimately for worse rather than better. (THE ECONOMIST (31.7.04))

Butcher has written a perceptive book. (BLACKPOOL GAZETTE)

this book is a must for the coach and athlete interested in the minds of great milers...Butcher's description of the heats and semi finals in LA is painstakingly accurate and dramatic. (Frank Horwill ATHLETICS WEEKLY (4.8.04))

outstanding. (IRISH TIMES)

Well-told account of the days when Seb Coe and Steve Ovett ruled the world by someone who was there. (GUARDIAN (18.12.04))

Book Description

The fully authorised, inside story of Steve Ovett and Sebastian Coe's intense rivalry on the track, which climaxed at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics

Edition details

• Publisher: Orion
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0297847457
• ISBN 13: 9780297847458
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 256