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That is Jeff Benjamin’s interview with Seb Coe on the late Steve Prefontaine and Wonders of Hayward Area.
Sebastian Coe On Steve Prefontaine
By Jeff Benjamin
Through the calm morning previous to the beginning of day two’s Prefontaine Traditional, World Athletics President Sebastian Coe (like many who make the pilgrimage to the vaunted newly constructed Hayward Area) started to reminisce on that mystical drive of the spirit and legacy of Steve Prefontaine.
“I didn’t know Steve,” mentioned Coe, who has at all times prided himself as a scholar of the Sport. “He was a reasonably seismic determine in my growing years.”
Through the Seventies, Coe, like each monitor fan and geek both in America or abroad, needed to await the arrival of both the day by day newspaper reviews (it needed to be massive information!) or magazines like Monitor & Area Information and Athletics Weekly to know what was occurring. “I bear in mind Prefontaine’s gritty entrance operating performances, which turned his trademark, and it was a method I sort of adopted, particularly in the course of the 1970’s.”
Whereas understanding Prefontaine solely in spirit (Prefontaine died in 1975), Coe and his father/coach Peter, starting in 1979, did turn into shut with many within the “Pre Circle” from that rising shoe firm blossoming in Beaverton.
“My father and I did know Invoice Bowerman and, to my Dad particularly, he mentioned, “You’re a kindred spirit.”
Coe can also be actually sizzling to know one other Oregonian – 1972 Marathon Olympian, Kenny Moore, throughout that point, in addition to he journeyed to England in 1979 to do a profile piece on the Coe duo for Sports activities Illustrated.
Try the hyperlink –runblogrun.com/2022/07/remembering-kenny-moore-6th-in-a-series-with-sebastian-coe-me-and-you-and-a-dog-named-cleo-with-ap.html
In a method, I received to know Steve Prefontaine via the ethos of Invoice and Kenny,” mentioned Coe.
“Via Kenny and Invoice, I realized lots about him.”
Coe then reminisced in regards to the time he ALMOST raced at Hayward Area in opposition to his nice rival Steve Ovett!
“In 1982, via Brad Hunt, Steve and I had been capable of lastly conform to a schedule of three head-to-head matchups at distances of 800, the mile, and 3000 meters,” mentioned Coe, with the 3000 scheduled for Hayward!
“Sadly, Steve suffered a critical leg damage, after which I used to be starting to get in poor health, so by 1983, it didn’t occur for both of us.”
Hyperlink to Coe’s 1983 challenges- https://www.runblogrun.com/2023/05/beware-the-ides-of-march-sebastian-coes-1983-world-records-shrouded-behind-upcoming-disaster-1st-in-a-series.html
“Certainly one of my regrets was by no means getting an opportunity to race right here,” mentioned Coe, regretful but additionally admitting the mystic passions right here in Eugene nonetheless permeate to today.
“I’d have been honored to race right here.”
“You continue to do really feel the presence of historical past right here in addition to the legacy of Steve Prefontaine, which nonetheless lives on.”
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