Seb Coe - 800m Talbot Games 1982

On 20th August 1982, Seb Coe ran his 2nd of 3 800m races in the space of 5 days. He did this in order to recreate the conditions he would be up against in the forthcoming European Champs 2 weeks later. The background to this was that Coe had missed 2 months (June & July) of training and competing that summer through injury. He ran a solo 800 time trial on August 4th in 1:46.5, then had 2 weeks training before his comeback race in Zurich on August 17th. He won there easily against probably the best field assembled that year in the world's 2nd fastest time (1:44.48). Three days later he ran here, at Crystal Palace, winning in 1:45.85. Here he does enough to win, hardly breathing at the end, and looking easy; the sort of performance one would expect in a Championship semi final. 2 nights later he ran and won his third race in 5 days, in Cologne in 1:45.10. That was meant to be his last race before 2 weeks training and the opening round of the 800m in Athens on Sep 6th. However, the BAAB, in their infinite wisdom, forced all the British competitors partaking in the Europeans to run the following weekend (August 30th) at the Heinz Games, again at Crystal Palace. Coe and his father said they would not run due to the need to get ready for the Europeans, with the fact that he had missed a lot of training at a crucial part of the season. Coe was told he had to run or he would not represent Britain in Athens, with that in mind a compromise was made and the BAAB held an assault on the world 4 x 800m WR. Coe ran, against his wishes, and ran an impressive split of 1:44.01. This was an unnecessary exertion for someone who had already run several times in quick succession off a limited training base. Consequently, despite being the overwhelming favourite, Coe ran the 2 rounds of the 800 in Athens on the 6th & 7th Sept., and then was defeated in the final by an average performance in a slowish time by someone he'd already beaten twice that season. Complaining of swollen glands, the British track doctor diagnosed glandular fever, and that was the end of Coe's season. It's unsure whether his defeat in Athens was due to "taking too much from the well" off limited training; a case of just one too many races; or whether it was due to the virus. In hindsight it was possibly a combination of the two.
However, the whole episode resulted in another Championship defeat at 800, and yet another stroke of bad luck for someone who was head and shoulders above the other 800m runners in the world. It was also the beginning of 18 months of problems and a virus finally diagnosed as toxoplasmosis. It is possible that he was already suffering from it in 82 and that the glandular fever (which has very similar symptoms) was mis-diagnosed in Athens.