Interview: Steve Cram, adding string to bow as he nears 50

Published on Friday 16 July 2010 20:02

AT A TIME when British athletics has no more than a couple of world-class competitors altogether, an era in which we have three in one event alone may seem scarcely conceivable. But that was the situation in the 1980s, when at one stage the 1,500-metres world and Olympic titles as well as the world record were all held by Britons.

The rivalry between Steve Ovett and Sebastian Coe had spurred them on to a domination of middle-distance running at the start of the decade. By the middle of it, they had been joined by the younger, but no less talented, Steve Cram.

Born in Jarrow in 1960, Cram grew up as an athlete in the shadow of Ovett and Coe, but in his early twenties gold medals at the European Championships and Commonwealth Games marked him out as a global force in his own right. Taller and rangier than his rivals, he did not have the devastating burst of speed they enjoyed, but he could sustain his top speed for longer.

In 1985, he sustained it for 19 days.

During that halcyon period of just under three weeks Cram set world records in the 1,500m, the mile and the 2,000m. His 1,500m record of 3min 29.67sec made him the first man to get under three and a half minutes for the distance, and remains the fastest ever run by a Briton.

All three, of course, were major triumphs, and were celebrated as such at the time. A quarter of a century on, in the company of some of the great names in sport, Cram relived those glories at a charity dinner in London. But, with his 50th birthday in sight, he was as keen to look back fondly on the whole of that summer rather than just his own feats, remarkable though they were.

"I was in the form of my life, and the races I competed in during that period were quite incredible, but it was a magical year for sport in general," he said this week.

"Channel Four had not long started, so there were effectively just three channels that everyone could watch, and that was reflected in the audiences. Dennis Taylor winning the snooker world championship had a massive audience. Twenty million people watched Barry McGuigan become (featherweight] world champion when he beat Eusebio Pedroza.

"And when I broke the (1,500m] world record in Nice both BBC and ITV showed it. You couldn't miss it.

"So with audiences that size, when you went in to work on the Monday morning and talked about something you'd watched on TV at the weekend, everybody knew what you were talking about, because so many people had watched it. That's one thing that was very different back then from now. Even Live Aid that summer felt the same way.It was almost a community event, because so many people had seen it on telly."

In retrospect Cram's dominance may seem effortless, but years of hard work went into it. More particularly, during the 18 months leading up to that first record in mid-July, he had come tantalisingly closer to attaining his best form.

"I had had a frustrating Olympic year," he recalled on 1984. "I'd been injured for most of the winter, and I still wasn't 100 per cent by the time we got to Los Angeles, even though I won silver behind Seb in the 1,500 metres.

"But by my last couple of races in 1984 I was starting to feel really fit. There was a race in Brussels, for example, I remember coming fairly close to the world record.

"Then I trained really well over that winter of 1984-85. I was winning cross-country races I shouldn't have, things like that.

"My first race of the outdoor season in '85 was at a small meeting in Oslo - I don't think it was televised - and I remember after I won it saying to myself, 'God, that was so easy'. So by the start of June I knew I was in really good shape."

Even so, as he flew down to the south of France for what would become the first record on 16 July, the Englishman was far from being the centre of attention. "The thing about that first world record in Nice was that it had been brewing up as a race between Joaquim Cruz, the Brazilian, and Said Aouita. I hadn't even asked for a world-record pace to be set - that was Cruz's camp.

"Then of course in the race itself he was the one who couldn't keep up. I think his career as a 1,500m runner began and ended right there."

With Cruz trailing, Cram and Morocco's Aouita fought all the way to the line. Cram got there first, but Aouita at least had the consolation of beating the old record, and also ducked under 3min 30.

Eleven days on, Coe was runner-up as Cram set a new mile record of 3:46.32. Then, on 4 August in Budapest, Cram took New Zealander John Walker's 2,000m record, setting a new best of 4:51.39.

For good measure that summer he also threw in the second fastest 1,000m time in history, setting a British allcomers record of 2mins12.88sec. But, while these were awe-inspiring results in some great races, Cram could not know at the time that he would never be in such good shape again. A couple of months short of his 25th birthday, he saw no reason not to go faster still.

"When I stepped off the track in Oslo I remember thinking I could go faster than that. But I didn't run another mile that year.

"Then at Gateshead after I ran the 1,000m I thought if I'd done the mile I might have run faster. But I can't look back with any real regret.

"My form was probably as good the next summer, but we had major championships then - the Commonwealth Games and the European Championships - so my focus was different. Going into Edinburgh I was really bouncing, but then between Edinburgh and the Europeans I got a bit of a niggling injury.Then at the end of August I picked up another niggle so I didn't really attack the world record that season.

"I was in pretty good shape in the early part of 1988. But then in a race in Rieti just before the Olympics when I was having another crack at the 1,000m world record there was 150 to go when I felt that pain like being shot by a sniper. I'd pulled a calf muscle. I still made it to Seoul, but I hadn't fully recovered."

Injuries took their toll on Cram as the 1980s gave way to the '90s, and he eventually swapped his running shoes for a microphone, joining the host of track stars to become BBC commentators. With the London Olympics just a couple of years away, he hopes he will be able to commentate on compatriots' triumphs, but is well aware there is no longer the feeling of invincibility our track-and-field team once enjoyed.

"It's a bit difficult to assess British athletics at the moment. It's not going to be easy to win medals at the 2012 Olympics, even with home advantage - I think we could win five or six if things go our way," said Cram.

"We struggle to dominate events the way we used to, but we do still have some great athletes. I'm thinking of people like Lisa Dobriskey and Jess Ennis, Jenny Meadows, Kelly Holmes of course a few years ago, Nicola Sanders and Christine Ohuruogu. It's the British women who have tended to do very well in recent years, for all sorts of reasons.

"There is a belief - and I know Michael Johnson for one shares it - that we tend to big up our British athletes before they've really done anything. We almost have a desperation for them to do well, and maybe they don't have the same hunger to be successful that they would have if they had got less attention.

"But if you look at our record now compared to the 1980s, part of the reason we are not so successful is that it's a worldwide sport. There are pockets of domination now - Jamaica in the sprints, for instance, Ethiopia and Kenya in long distance - but there are far more countries overall in contention for medals.

"So it's hard, but in a sense no harder than it used to be. If somebody could run the 400m hurdles as fast now as Sally Gunnell did it back then, they'd still be there or thereabouts. And that's not the only event like that."

Besides turning to commentary after ending his competitive career, Cram found another new chapter in his life was opened by a race over a far longer distance than the ones in which he once competed. In 1998 he and a former army officer, Jim Panton, completed a 52-mile run - the same distance as the Comrades Marathon in South Africa - to raise funds for a group of children in Bosnia. They did the same in 1999 for Liberian children, this time in the Comrades Marathon itself.

The following year they formalised their efforts into COCO, Comrades of Children Overseas.A decade on, the charity is thriving, and continues to help vulnerable children in some of the most deprived parts of the world, particularly in Africa. "It was a bit of a plunge when we started employing people, but it's growing, in a sustainable way. We've been concentrating on Africa recently because we feel we can make more change there. And we're enjoying what we do. In February I'll be climbing Kilimanjaro for a second time, so I'm really looking forward to that."

A few months before then, another landmark in Cram's life will arrive when he reaches his 50th birthday. His BBC commitments mean he will not be able to celebrate at home, but he still seems sure to have a good time - and a typically unassuming one.

"I'll be in Delhi for the Commonwealth Games. I'll be getting up very early to commentating on the marathon. Then I'll be doing the closing ceremony. Then later on I might go for a curry."