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London. Britain must capitalize on the 2012 London Olympics by reclaiming domination over middle distance running, Steve Cram said, 25 years to the day since he smashed the 1,500 meters world record.

The British track star, still keeping trim at 50, was the first man to run the distance under three minutes 30 seconds, posting 3:29.67 in Nice, southern France, on July 16, 1985.

He went on to break the mile and 2,000 meters records within 19 days, as Britain dominated the world at middle distance running under Cram, Sebastian Coe and Steve Ovett.

Cram’s mile time of 3:46.32, recorded at Oslo on July 27, 1985, and his 2,000 meters time of 4:51.39, set in Budapest on August 4, 1985, are still the European records, while his 1,500 meters is still the British benchmark.

But he would desperately love the 2012 Games to give a British athlete the impetus to shatter his records at long, long last.

“It’s sad that in Britain we’ve had great women — Paula Radcliffe, Kelly Holmes, Lisa Dobriskey, Jennifer Meadows — but with men, here we are 25 years later,” Cram told AFP.

“You shouldn’t be able to hold a British record in athletics for that time, it’s not right.”

He said Britons could muscle into a gap in the market.

“Sprint is Caribbean/American-dominated, in longer events it’s Kenya and Ethiopia but the 800 and 1,500 metres we can still be successful at,” he said.

“If Seb, Steve and I were running now, we’d be right in there winning those races: today’s runners are not going any faster. We just need a couple of Brits who can get in there and get involved — as we’ve seen in the women’s.”

Cram, now a BBC commentator, said gold medals at the London Games would be crucial in restoring athletics to its former glory in Britain.

“We desperately need to win golds in athletics. It lifts the Games. The place will come alive,” he told AFP.

“We will win gold in cycling and rowing, but in that Olympic Stadium, we need to have people with the chance to win.

“I want a British athlete in every single final — minimum. That’s the base level, and we should be able to achieve that.”

Cram believes there are many reasons why British athletics has fallen from its peak, starting with not enough youngsters being encouraged into it at school as parents push their children into football.

No British men’s records have been broken in Olympic track events since 1997. The athletics legend wants to see that changed.

“We’re putting way too much emphasis on sprinting,” Cram said. “Sprinters get all the publicity, but when was the last time a British sprinter won a medal at a major championships?

“The route we’ve taken recently is a dangerous one, trying to center everything around Loughborough (central England) and Lee Valley (London), when athletics has always been spread around the country,” he added.

“It’s also very coach-driven, but you’ve got to get that balance right between the influence of the coach and the champion-thinking athlete.”

Cram said athletics clubs had to be prepared for an influx of people inspired by the Games, but reckons parts of Britain do not yet have good competition structures and facilities in place.

Cram is the London 2012 UK ambassador for Atos Origin, the Games’ worldwide information technology partner which will deliver event results in less than a second.


Agence France-Presse