The perfect rivalry
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Pat Butcher's book is a fine read - accurate, entertaining, informative, and including a generous helping of human drama. His assessments are fair and even-handed, something not always easy to achieve even after more than 20 years. His accounts of past achievements and rivalries, his revealing of the person behing the athlete, and the transition from (sh)amateurism to professionalism are excellent. I particularly like some of the little details which spoke to much (.... and Coleman said, "Ovett, those blue eyes, like chips of ice.")
In fact I might have given 5 stars but I found the journalistic dialect - the extensive use of stereotypes, the exaggerated black and white - was a little grating (only a real Ovett opponent would accept that for years he made Coe's athletic career a misery). Of course, it is hard to escape the reality that these were two exceptional athletes, and it certainly was the rivalry between them that captured the imagination of track enthusiasts and the general public alike. But the dominant theme of the book was "rivalry" rather than the athletic event itself. I would have preferred the book to bring out just is so special, so "perfect" about the mile (British or metric), because it IS a special distance, posing special challenges to the athlete and lending itself to the type of sporting confrontation that generates these special rivalries.
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Riveting read
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This is a great read for anyone interested in athletics. Unsurprisingly it's mostly about Coe and Ovett and their intense battle for supreamacy but, riveting as that main plot is, Butcher intersperses sections on many of the other leading runners of the time, the change from amateurism to professionalism, the history of the mile.. etc which help flesh out the story.
The opening sentence captures the imagination and makes putting the book down difficult! I would have liked a bit more on the LA campaign which closes the book however.
I've read biographies by several olympic athletes and one thing they have in common is not conveying what it's actually like to be at the games. Something I would give my right arm for. Paula's is the most recent example, where there is little more detail than you would expect describing a trip to Sainsbury's. The Perfect Distance did go some way to capture the atmosphere and brought back vivid memories of watching Coe, Cram and Ovett competing at the time, on the edge of my seat, shouting at the tv.
Highly recommended.
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A brilliant tale of two shining stars.
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Although too young to vividly remember the full extent of their rivalry, I took up running as an 8 year-old after watching Coe's magnificent victory in LA, and have been at it ever since.
Butcher's masterly account captures all the magic of the two great runners, presenting them as multi-faceted personalities each driven to glory in his own unique way. He also skilfully presents the differences between them and the essence of this keenest of rivalries, while bringing out a warmth and mutual respect that has clearly developed over time and with the benefit of hindsight.
What sets the novel apart from the majority of sporting literature is the narrative skill and literary flair he uses to do justice to a great story and piece of history, and a first line that made the hairs stand up on my neck.
Unlike most sports books, which are purely of interest to the hardcore enthusiast, this is to be recommended for anyone with a passing interest in sport.
For track fans it is an absolute must-have.
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UK golden athletics
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I thought this book depicted Ovett, Coe and the UK Golden era of athletics superbly. It gave me an insight into all of their races, results, their characters, careers and a full background of what I had witnessed on TV as a child. Fabulous!!!
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A gripping and enlightening read
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As somebody who was inspired as an eight year old watching the Moscow Olympics to take up athletics, I bought this book with not a little excitement. I read it in a single sitting. As a predominantly Ovett fan, it was great to read in detail about Coe and Ovett's early careers as well as the drama surrounding the rivalry of the pair. I remember vividly the tv coverage in 1984 from the Los Angeles Olympics when Steve Ovett was having his breathing difficulties. What I didn't know until I read this book was quite what was wrong, or how incredible it was that he still managed to make it into two Olympic finals. Nor did I know that it was none other than his great rival that made sure he received medical attention and waited around afterwards. Nuggets from interviews and touching anecdotes like this make this book the great read that it is. The only thing that could have made this book any better would perhaps have been a final chapter on what Coe and Ovett have been up to since they retired.
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