1500m Final Men - 1988
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- čas přidán 4. 04. 2012
- Peter Rono (Kenya) wins 1500m Gold ahead of race favourites Peter Elliott (GB), Jens-Peter Herold (EG) and Steve Cram (GB).
Commentators - David Coleman, Ron Pickering and Brendan Foster.
BBC Coverage.
Peter Rono was my uber driver today! In his bio it mentioned being a “gold medalist Olympian” and I was curious so I asked him about it. He told me all about it and said to look him up on CZcams which led me to here. Amazing the people you come across day to day. Salute to you peter for being awesome!
Peter Rono gave me his training diary when I was representing him in some races in Europe after the Olympics. It really makes fascinating reading what he did day by day from the December right through to the Olympic final. What is amazing is the way he saw the race as just a race. He had no fear whatsoever of any other runner and you can tell by the way he ran and looks around after taking the lead and just how relaxed he was
I regard this 1500m final as one of the greatest strategic Olympic final races to watch. Where the 3 Peters won the medals!. Apart from the 1984 final with Sebastian Coe’s remarkable final 100m it was fascinating to watch and rewatch. I reviewed the footage and counted Peter Rono turned his head to the right 28 times in the last 53 second lap to see if anyone was coming to pass him. You can hypothesize this was his tactic to stay in front and respond to every challenger, but we won’t know unless we ask him or his coach. (If they can remember). The fact is he was fast enough to stay in front and obviously was the deserving champion that year. He certainly looked relaxed and fast in formidable company. As a 21 year old who was virtually unheard of internationally going into the Olympics , it was a sensation at the time. The Kenyans training that year in 1988, must have been near perfection in their ability to peak all their athletes to completely dominate every Olympic gold medal 🥇 from the 800m distance to the 5000m.
YT brought me this channel only recently. Man I love these vintage races!
Thanks for putting up this video. A real case of what might have been. No Coe, Cram ill and coming back off a calf injury sustained in Rieti, no Aouita (pulled out with a thigh injury after the heat), no Bile (also injured). Nevertheless, an absorbing race. Fair play to Rono for grabbing his chance. It was the only one he would have!
Peter Rono used the same tactics in all three rounds: start at the back, circle the field in the second lap, and hug the rail after that running no faster than necessary to hold off all challenges, all the way to the line. Doubtless he trained specifically for this particular tactic (just like Kuts did in the Melbourne Oly 10k). Meanwhile, announcers like CBC's Geoff Gowan were going on and on about how "Africans run free and don't bother with tactics" and other unconsciously racist blather, while not bothering to watch what was actually happening on the track. Rono's only major win, brilliantly conceived and executed.
This is what taking control of a race means Once Rono hit the front he ran the perfect race doing enough to hold off all challengers he also accelerated just before the others accelerated and suddenly they realized Christ he is flying we are not going to catch him at all.
I think that sometimes some things are meant to take place at certain times. Peter Elliot was always an extremely tough competitor at national and also international level during the 1980s. He achieved his breakthrough of Bronze at the 1986 Commonwealth Games, the two splendid Silvers at Global Level which cemented his true, consistent pedigree at the World Championship 800 metres in 1987 and the 1500 metres Seoul Olympics, and finally, GOLD, Commonwealth Games 1500 metres in Auckland. A Gold medal is a Gold medal at a major Championship.
52s last lap! thats blistering.
That run by Rono is very underated. He wound it up from a long way out and his experienced opponents should have know that if someone has the lead in an Olympic final and gets a vision of gold he is very hard to beat. Actually, most likely they knew this and just could not get to the front. If you run well at the Olympics you don't need to do anything else before or after!
In a parallel universe not too distant from our own, a fit Elliot, Cram, and Coe split the medals between them (who knows in what order), all three well clear of the field in the style of Stuttgart 86 800m, a fitting climax to a decade of middle-distance dominance for the Brits!
I've had an opportunity to be training with Peter Elliott when I was the Rotherham harriers cross-country champion under 12 gold medalist. I trained with Peter which we used to all run our road running and circuit training. What a privilege to have known a champion
Its funny the way the reporters only realise Rono is going to stroll to goldin the last few meters, then they give a completely comentry for the replay.
Olympic finals appeared in: Cram 3, Coe 4, Ovett 5.
1) Peter RONO
(KEN)
Hard to believe a runner such as Cram could not win an Olympic Gold at 3 attempts
I remember watching this and thinking what a missed opportunity it was for a British gold medal. Rono took full advantage so fair play to him but the way the race panned out it just seemed that Cram in particular didn’t see the threat and then couldn’t respond when it was too late. The end of an era for British middle-distance running and the start of a new era for African running that would get better and better as the ‘80s turned into the ‘90s and a new generation of African talent emerged to dominate.
Love these Kenyans spirit❤🇰🇪🇰🇪🇰🇪🇰🇪
Peter Elliot 🙌🙌🙌
Injuries or no injuries is still part and parcel of athletics. Physical training is very important. But mind training which is more neglected is the most important. Anxiety and tension lead to muscle pulls and other injuries.