SPORTS BOOK OF THE WEEK

The Perfect Distance: Ovett & Coe: The Record-breaking Rivalry by Pat Butcher (first published 2005, Sportsbookofthemonth.com price £8.14 paperback)

Continuing our classic sports book series….

Back in the early 1980s, there appeared to be a world of difference between Britain’s superstar athletes Steve Ovett and Sebastian Coe.

In truth, the pair were remarkably alike – you couldn’t place the proverbial cigarette paper between them.

Coe would remain in the public eye following his running career, particularly after his role as figurehead of the London Olympic Games Organising Committee earned him acclaim of a different kind.

Forty-odd years ago, however, both men were heroes in equal measure.

Except the intriguing thing was, to many they weren’t.

Spoiled with the two finest middle-distance runners of their generation, Britain split into Ovett and Coe camps; ‘The Tough (Ovett) vs The Toff (Coe).’

While there was little animosity between the pair, their predicament and their dominance of both 800m and 1500m disciplines meant athletics fans supported one or the other.

That culminated in one of the most memorable showdowns in Olympic history at the 1980 Moscow Olympics, or the Coe-Ovett Olympics as they were dubbed.

As everyone of a certain age knows, Coe’s champion event was the 800m while Ovett excelled at the 1500m.

But sport is at its finest when at its most unpredictable and when Ovett won the 800m, Coe promptly responded by winning in the 1500m.

Those two races could stand alone as a gripping tale but they merely act as the centrepiece of Pat Butcher’s excellent book, which takes in the pair’s rise to prominence, Ovett’s spiky relationship with the media and the deferential treatment given by middle distance runners to ‘The Perfect Distance’; the mile.

While Coe is known the world over, it is Ovett whose enigmatic personality makes him the more beguiling character of the two (typical quote: ‘the decathlon is nine Mickey Mouse events and a slow 1500m’), although Coe’s alliance with overbearing father and coach Peter also makes for fascinating reading.

Regardless of what has followed, for athletics fans it was Pat Butcher himself who put it best back in 1982: ‘whether in opposition or adversity, the names of Sebastian Coe and Steve Ovett seem destined to be linked.’