Seb Coe

I was rather hoping, like everybody else in the race, given that we got four races in four days, that I'd be able to, in a way, float through the first day.

A Greek athlete who wasn't even on the ranking list suddenly decides to take the first lap through in 51 seconds.

That is not the moment to sort of go, well, you think they're going to blow up.

If they don't, you don't get past the first day.

So instead of, you know, a modest, maybe 148, 149 to qualify, I found myself running 145.

So that alters tactically.

And then you have to be very alert to that.

My overall approach was always hurt people as soon as you possibly can in the race.

And between 500 meters and 600 meters, I've sort of dubbed that the killing zone.

And if you can really hurt people in the back straight, then that in large part defines what goes on in the finishing straight.

Actually,

Very often, the order that people emerge from the back straight into the bend is pretty much the order they emerge into the finishing straight and probably on balance how they're going to finish the race.

So I was always well-conditioned.

I had a good distance runner's background.

And I found that getting the yardage in as quickly as you can, taking people into oxygen debt as quickly as you could, actually had the maximal impact on the runners around you.

You don't always necessarily need to do that because I'd also got a decent kick.

So there were occasions where that would get me out of trouble.

It's a bit like accelerating out of a potential accident on the road.

Sometimes acceleration takes you into a safe spot.

So the ability to use both those assets was actually quite helpful to me.