Heavy pre-season winter training in Australia before the ‘84 LA Olympics and it was felt that Steve Ovett came back feeling fitter than ever. He did a road race mile in Paris against a strong field winning convincingly, if slightly laboured as you would expect in early season. Then came a bout of Bronchitis which led to the illness in LA. I thought he may be coming back earlier in the ‘86 Commonwealth 5000 when he beat Buckner and Hutchins quite easily but it wasn’t to be. This race was pretty much the end of Steve. It has been mentioned that of the big three of Ovett, Coe and Cram, Steve Ovett did the most endurance training, a prodigious amount according to some. That’s not to say the other two didn’t do a lot but I think maybe Steve’s body began to take too much of a pounding. I think he was the best, people forget that he had the World completely to himself in ‘77/‘78...just a shame he reached the top a year after the ‘76 Olympics.
He did have a few good races in 87 - 2nd to Aouita at La Caruna in a top notch field. And he had 10th at world 500m , which is not shit. He beat Maree, Ngugi, Tracey and Anton in that race.
@@martynhanson His performance at the 1987 World Championships showed his level as a 5,000 metre runner. He was beaten there also by Buckner and Hutchings. Had Buckner and Hutchings ran at 13 10-12 pace at the 1986 Commonwealth in my opinion Ovett would never have won. His winning time and PB for the distance was 13.24 - over 10 seconds slower than Buckner and Hutchings.
Great run from Buckner-shame the hot weather put Ovett out of it-would have been his. To qualify this statement look what happened in Edinburgh in the Commonwealths,Ovett looks v ill again here.His old rival Coe looks gutted for him,this is when i realised Coe was a good guy too,he was there for Ovett.The end
Great athletes, I remember watching this and was very pleased for Jack Buckner, and for Tim - who ran for the same team as me - Crawley!
What a run by the Brits!
A great achievement by Buckner. And a 56 second last 400m in a 5,000m race finishing in 13:10s is very, very impressive.
That run by Buckner reminded me of Viren in 1972 - Buckner let the Italian go past him - knowing full well he still had a kick finish left.
Heavy pre-season winter training in Australia before the ‘84 LA Olympics and it was felt that Steve Ovett came back feeling fitter than ever. He did a road race mile in Paris against a strong field winning convincingly, if slightly laboured as you would expect in early season. Then came a bout of Bronchitis which led to the illness in LA. I thought he may be coming back earlier in the ‘86 Commonwealth 5000 when he beat Buckner and Hutchins quite easily but it wasn’t to be. This race was pretty much the end of Steve. It has been mentioned that of the big three of Ovett, Coe and Cram, Steve Ovett did the most endurance training, a prodigious amount according to some. That’s not to say the other two didn’t do a lot but I think maybe Steve’s body began to take too much of a pounding. I think he was the best, people forget that he had the World completely to himself in ‘77/‘78...just a shame he reached the top a year after the ‘76 Olympics.
He did have a few good races in 87 - 2nd to Aouita at La Caruna in a top notch field. And he had 10th at world 500m , which is not shit. He beat Maree, Ngugi, Tracey and Anton in that race.
@@martynhanson His performance at the 1987 World Championships showed his level as a 5,000 metre runner. He was beaten there also by Buckner and Hutchings. Had Buckner and Hutchings ran at 13 10-12 pace at the 1986 Commonwealth in my opinion Ovett would never have won. His winning time and PB for the distance was 13.24 - over 10 seconds slower than Buckner and Hutchings.
@@anthonyquinn6009 a healthy Ovett could have ruled the world at 5,000m. His two mile races showed that and he had endurance in spades.
@Rotsac93 Very sorry to hear of the passing of Antonio Leitao today. A great athlete. May he rest in peace.
The Best Runner in World...
Super Steve Ovett...
My favorite..
Those were the days!
24 years later, Mo Farah won the 5,000m European title in Barcelona as well as the 10000m. Memorable race there. Britain gold and bronze.
Great upload - world class field. What 1 and 3 for the Brits
Awesome! Great race and the best ever result for the best ever bulgarian 5000 m runner!
awesome race
Love the screen at the final stretch. It's hysterical that the European record was 0.01 slower than the world record.
The complete results: 1.Buckner (Britain) 13:10.15; 2.Mei (Italy) 13:11.57; 3.Hutchings (Britain) 13:12.88; 4.Ignatov (Bulgaria) 13:13.15; 5.Leitão (Portugal) 13:17.67; 6.Vainio (Finland) 13:22.67; 7.Délèze (Switzerland) 13:28.80; 8.Cova (Italy) 13:35.86; 9.Uvizl (Czechoslovakia) 13:37.26; 10.Antibo (Italy) 13:38.25; 11.Mönckemeyer (West Germany) 13:40.52; 12.Couto (Portugal) 13:42.39; 13.Rousseau (Belgium) 13:51.69; dropped out: Ovett (Britain) and Ryffel (Switzerland).
Thanks a lot from Spain
Astonishing race, wow!!
Drug cheat Vainio in the race just two years after being banned - unbelievable!
After this Buckner went on to run an apple farm in New Zealand!
gotta love how the commentator says his name wrong.
Did you notice Seb Coe?
It was good to see Coe be one of the first to console Steve Ovett when he came off the track. A lot of respect between them both.
He was there wanting/expecting to congratulate Ovett,then he saw him struggle,great sportmanship from Seb that day
Great run from Buckner-shame the hot weather put Ovett out of it-would have been his. To qualify this statement look what happened in Edinburgh in the Commonwealths,Ovett looks v ill again here.His old rival Coe looks gutted for him,this is when i realised Coe was a good guy too,he was there for Ovett.The end
Great run by Buckner but hutchings made that race.