LONDON, 17 December 2003 — British athletics great Sebastian Coe warned yesterday that the opening of the English Institute of Sport in his native Sheffield would not reverse the decline in the nation’s middle-distance running fortunes.
Coe, the 1500 meters champion at both the 1980 and 1984 Olympic Games, together with compatriot Steve Ovett monopolized the world of middle-distance running during the late 1970s and early 1980s.
But since the retirement of Steve Cram and Peter Elliott, Britain has struggled to produce world class runners in middle-distance events.
And Coe, 47, a former 800 meters world record-holder, said yesterday: “We have suffered from it being a long time since we have had someone to really ignite middle-distance running.”
He added: “I used to train around the edge of tennis courts and most of my work was done on the roads in Sheffield, dodging cars and buses.
“I would have loved to have had a facility like the English Institute of Sport that would let me do things safer in winter.
“I think the EIS will help, but I am a great believer in needing someone to ignite the flare again. Peter Elliott did it and Steve Cram took the baton from him.”
Coe, speaking ahead of next year’s Olympics, said Britain should be humble enough to learn from other countries just as they had once learned from Britain.
“If we are being honest we didn’t build on what we had and what we had was unbelievably good and had depth.
“Where we have struggled is that the athletes went and with those athletes went the coaches, who weren’t enshrined in the infrastructure of the sport. The skills of those coaches were not used.
“The interesting thing is the countries who are dominating middle distance in Europe are Spain and Italy, and they were the ones who ploughed a path to our door in the 1980s. They wanted to talk to our coaches and learn from them and I feel we don’t do the same. We should be catching up and learning from them.”
