Elite coaching special - Steve Cram on succeeding over 800m/1500m

Going into 1983 Cram had already made a name for himself with his wins over 1500m at the European and Commonwealth Games in 1982. But Cram wanted to move up another level.

He recalls: "It was the first World Championships. They hadn't run one before so everyone was pretty excited at the time. We'd had so many Olympic boycotts so it was the first full championships for quite a while where everyone was running. Everyone was really up for it as 84 [the LA Olympics] was going to have boycotts again.

"The year before I had won the Commonwealth Games and European titles and thought it was something I should win rather than thinking 'My time has not yet come'.”

Cram was not going into the race with the perfect preparation but was determined that this was the stage on which he was going to prove himself: "My build up wasn't great but I ended up going there focussing pretty much on Steve Scott and Steve Ovett. Seb Coe pulled out late on. Then there was this Moroccan, Said Aouita, who had started producing some times.”

Cram sat down and drew up the plan of how to win the race.

"In those days it was rare to meet your rival for the first time in the championships. Thankfully Brendan Foster, through his contacts, got to know what Aouita’s tactics were going to be - to go hard from 600m. It was all pedestrian to the moment when he hit the front at 600m to go. Then all hell broke loose. I was ready then kicked hard from 200m and hung on in the home straight.”

Cram became the world’s first ever 1500m world champion. "Helsinki was a great place to win. The Fins are a great nation of distance running fans.”

As well as Cram becoming the World Champion Aouita also made a big mark on a major championship for the first time. He finished third behind Cram and Steve Scott with Ovett fourth.

Steve recalls: "I had seen the times he'd run. The first race I'd run against him was in the semi. We were kind of eyeing each other up a bit. Around the top bend I put my foot down and he put his foot down and I thought 'You're going to be a threat'.

"He has always said he thinks he got his tactic wrong in that race. He was scared that he couldn't outkick us. He hadn't realised he could.

"In the last 300m or 400m I was fine. The last 200m or 150m? I wouldn't leave it that late.”

Steve believes the 1500m is one of the great track and field events due to the tactics and potential carnage involved: "In that three and a bit minutes you never quite know what is going is going to happen. "You have got to try to work out what everyone else is going to do. In a championship there are no pacemakers. You can probably only make one mistake and get away with it - depending on what it is. You hope you get it right. For me it was a race where the other guys did what I thought they would do and I did what I wanted to do. It doesn't usually work like that. When you are planning you look at your opponents and what they are going to do, a bit of intelligence helps and you have to be ready to react. I have run some much faster races but that is a great example of a tactical 1500m."

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