Sport - Sports : General

`Coe's pedigree vital in bringing Games to London'

LONDON: Sebastian Coe was an inspired choice to lead the London 2012 bid team and his Olympic pedigree probably tipped the balance in the capital's favour, according to his friend and former adversary Steve Cram.

Cram said that Coe's two Olympic gold medals put him in high regard among the International Olympic Committee members who picked London by four votes over Paris.

``I think you couldn't have picked a better person in this environment,'' he said. ``It is an odd little club (the IOC) to be part of, it's not like anything else.

``Having someone who picked his way through that over the years, and was familiar with both the mechanisms and the individuals, was quite important.''

Coe won Olympic golds in 1980 and 1984 over 1,500 metres and two silvers over 800 metres.

Together with an 800 metres record that stood for 16 years, those triumphs in the blue riband event of the athletics programme earned him recognition as a true sporting great.

``I know he's not going to say that but I don't think anybody should underestimate the importance of his role in London having won the bid,'' said Cram who finished second behind Coe at the 1984 Olympics.

After spending several years as a Conservative MP in the south west of England, Coe was asked in May 2004 to head the London bid which was lacking direction under American businesswoman Barbara Cassani.

``While some credit should be given to Barbara Cassani for getting the thing off the ground and putting the technical side of it together, what it really needed was someone who could deliver the message,'' Cram, a former European and World champion, said.

``When you have someone giving that message who has that pedigree behind him, then the message is always stronger for it.

``He took this on with the charm we always expect him to have but also the hidden steely determination which lies beneath the surface.

``I think he instilled belief,'' Cram said in an interview.

On Wednesday, Coe finished the job with an impassioned plea to IOC members to give London the chance to host the Games.

``London's vision is to reach young people all round the world to connect them with the inspiring power of the Games,'' he said, referring to his first memories of the Olympics.

"London's famous victory is, quite simply, a brilliant achievement," The Guardian said in its editorial. The broadsheet highlighted the upturn in fortunes for east London, heart of the Olympic bid.

The area is the most ethnically diverse and poorest in Europe, rife with urban blight, The Guardian said. East London "can at last look forward to the ambitious regeneration that it never properly got after the batterings of World War II and the collapse of old industries like the docks." — Agencies

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