Breaking Records Is Nice, but Cram Yearns for Gold

In a mere 20 days, Britain’s Steve Cram smashed three world track and field records and came within a whisker of breaking No. 4.

In that short time, he equaled Sebastian Coe’s 1979 feat of three world marks, but Coe needed 41 days.

“I’m not sure that even when I peak at the end of August, I could run like that,” Coe said.

Cram’s dazzling summer has been the focal point of the inaugural Grand Prix season during which athletes can collect points and lucrative prize money through trust funds.

Still, the modest, unassuming 24-year-old runner, the toast of British sports, shrugs off suggestions that he has assumed the mantle of the 28-year-old Coe.

“We could meet another four times this year and no one could say who would win,” he told reporters in Oslo, after shattering Coe’s mark for the mile last month.

And anyway, Coe has something Cram still dreams about.

“Three world records are fine. But Seb’s got an Olympic gold medal. I’d swap them all for that. World records can be taken off you, but an Olympic title is yours for life,” Cram said.

Cram has tried twice for an Olympic medal. At Moscow in 1980, as an inexperienced teen-ager, he placed eighth in the 1,500-meter final. At Los Angeles last year, he was second behind Coe in that event. He’ll try again in Seoul in 1988.

Cram’s three-week string began in Nice, France, on July 16 when he smashed fellow-Briton Steve Ovett’s 1,500-meter record by clocking 3 minutes, 29.67 seconds.

Eleven days later in Oslo, his 3:46.31 shattered Coe’s mark for the mile. Roger Bannister, who in 1954 became the first man to break four minutes, would have trailed almost 100 yards behind. Cram said he felt he could have run even faster.

Another week went by before he broke the 2,000-meter world best by one-hundredth of a second when he ran 4:51.39 in Budapest to claim New Zealander John Walker’s 9-year-old record.

On his home track at Gateshead, northeast England, last weekend, only the wind prevented Cram from adding Coe’s 1,000-meter mark. He failed by just 0.67 seconds.

While opponents feared Coe for his devastating sprint finish, Cram runs in an entirely different style. He uses his strength, height and awareness to grind down opponents with powerful, long strides.

“Size and strength is the essence of Cram’s achievements,” said Peter Coe, Sebastian’s father, who spent 12 years guiding his son toward peaks now being surpassed or threatened by Cram.

Cram, 6-foot-1 and 152 pounds, says he studied the preparation and strategies of Ovett, Coe and other middle-distance stars and learned from them. Instinctively in races, he moves into position at the right time.

“You can’t set yourself up with pre-race plans because they never work out,” he told The Times of London recently. “You’ve got to be able to think on your feet.”

Born on Oct. 14, 1960, Cram hails from Jarrow in northeast England, where the locals are known as Geordies and their accent is difficult to understand even for other Englishmen.

Off the track, Cram shows none of the ruthless competitiveness he displays on race days and shuns special treatment. When he returned home from winning the 1,500-meter gold medal at the Helsinki World Championships two years ago, he declined to ride in an open-topped bus, saying it was “too flashy.”

“He’ll even stand third in a queue for a packet of chips,” said former Olympic long-distance runner Brendan Foster, another Geordie who has become Cram’s friend and mentor.

In his spare time, Cram travels the short distance from his home to watch his beloved soccer team, Sunderland, for whom he says he would rather have played than been a world-class athlete.

“I think going to a match helps me to keep my success in perspective,” he told The Times.

“It means I’m in the position of spectator for once. I can understand how some people may feel toward me, and want a little bit of the success that I have enjoyed. It helps me appreciate what people cheering me really feel,” he said.

Since age 11, Cram has been coached by Jimmy Hedley who, in recent years, has become more of a motivator, allowing his pupil to make up his own training schedules.

Tickets and travel arrangements are handled by Cram’s wife, Karen, who accompanies him on most trips abroad.