I got 1,500m champ Coe to dash an extra 600m!
MY competitive spirit at times caused raised eyebrows during my TV career. Take the 1980 Olympics in Moscow when Rugby’s Neil Adams won a silver medal in the judo.
His disappointment at missing the gold at the very end of the final was apparent but, as he recalls, the first thing he saw as he lifted his head off the mat was me with a live camera throwing questions at him.
Not very sensitive on my part but it was a cracking interview and we have stayed friends – we met up for lunch before the pandemic.
There are several memories from those Games.
I had developed a strong and lasting relationship with Seb Coe, now Lord Sebastian Coe. Much was made of his rivalry with his British team-mate Steve Ovett.
Coe’s best event at that time was the 800 metres; Ovett’s was the 1,500 metres – was the world record holder and had not been beaten over that distance for three years.
In Moscow, Coe tactically got the 800m final wrong and finished second to Ovett.
Coe explained at the time that it was not that they disliked each other (the impression given in the media) more a case of they did not know each other.
Coe was great for interviews; Ovett was a recluse.
But our newlyformed relationship was put in jeopardy when Coe was told by the BBC that ITV had paid Ovett (against the policy of free interviews as rights holders) £2,000 for an exclusive interview.
I had been kept in the dark by my bosses. I told Coe, who was understandably angry, that I would understand if he did not want to give me any more interviews.
He said he trusted me and we should carry on as normal but to relay his disappointment.
Then came the 1,500m and Coe produced a fantastic illustration of what makes champions by winning the gold. ITV Sport, then run by LWT, who were always setting me tough tasks, rang trackside and demanded I get Coe across Moscow within an hour to link him up from our studio with the 1976 gold medallist John Walker – and they would ask Coe’s mother to travel to the Yorkshire TV studios, which
she did.
So after the press conference I put it to Coe, who was up for it. Short of time I suddenly remembered my driver and his car were parked 600 metres away so I had to ask the new hero and his coach, dad Peter, to run quite fast with me! We just made the interview.
Meanwhile, I had over the years built up a great friendship with the Wolverhampton javelin thrower Tessa Sanderson.
Tessa was the favourite to win gold, which she eventually achieved four years later in Los
Angeles.
Before we left for Moscow she promised me the first interview after her event.
I was mostly based in the Olympics Village as reporter/ interviewer. I took a call there from colleague Trevor East: ‘‘Tessa messed it up and has been eliminated after the opening round. She has left the stadium in tears refusing to talk to anyone including Gerald Seymour for us. It is down to you, mate. I have told everyone, ‘Newbon will get Tessa to talk’.’’ No pressure there then! Soon Tessa arrived back into the village. She looked at me and said: ‘‘I can’t talk, sorry”. But I pleaded: ‘‘You promised me, come on Tessa. We can do it now.”
Thankfully Tessa stopped in front of my nearby cameraman and sobbed her way through nine brilliant minutes of an exclusive interview.
Seymour, a talented ITN reporter, was also involved in a bizarre interview at the swimming pool.
We all believed, correctly, that Duncan Goodhew would win a gold. His agent was our commentator, Athole Still. The three of us went to talk to Goodhew during training at the Olympic pool. Relevant to this story is that Duncan has been completely bald since the age of ten as a result of an autoimmune illness after falling out of a tree.
Seymour really pressed the point home that because of Still he should give us the first interview from the pool itself. It was to be a free for all with David Coleman there for the BBC.
As we left Seymour asked me what I thought. I told him that with the elation at winning a gold Goodhew would not remember him.
So, much to Goodhew’s irritation, we returned to him. Gerard finished by saying: ‘‘We will now get out of your hair!”
I rushed round the corner to roar with laughter. Gerald said: ‘‘Oh my God!”
I assured him: “He will not forget you now.” He didn’t. Seymour got the first interview!
Thankfully Tessa stopped in front of my nearby cameraman and sobbed her way through nine brilliant minutes of an exclusive interview