Steve Cram

Steve Cram
Steve Cram 2008
Full name	Steve Cram
nation	United Kingdom
birthday	October 14, 1960
place of birth	Gateshead ,  England
job	TV host
Career
discipline	800 meter run , 1500 meter run
Best performance	1: 42.88 min (800 m), 3: 29.67 min (1500 m)
society	Jarrow and Hebburn Athletics Club
status	resigned
Medal table
Olympic games 0 × 1 × 0 × World championships 1 × 0 × 0 × European championships 2 × 0 × 1 × Commonwealth Games 3 × 0 × 0 ×
Olympic games silver Los Angeles 1984 1500 m World championships gold Helsinki 1983 1500 m  European championships gold Athens 1982 1500 m gold Stuttgart 1986 1500 m bronze Stuttgart 1986 800 m  Commonwealth Games gold Brisbane 1982 1500 m gold Edinburgh 1986 1500 m gold Edinburgh 1986 800 m
last change: July 28, 2015

Steve Cram (born October 14, 1960 in Gateshead , England ) is a former British athlete who competed for Jarrow. He was a member of the strong group of British middle-distance runners who dominated international competitions in the 1980s . Cram was the first person to run the 1500 meters under 3:30 minutes.

Career

At the age of 19 he took in Moscow for the first time at the Olympic Games in part, finished the race over 1500 meters but only eighth place.

His breakthrough to the top of the world came in 1982 when he first became European champion over 1500 meters and shortly afterwards won the race at the Commonwealth Games . The following year he also won the first ever World Championships and was voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year , Sportsman of the Year in Great Britain.

Cram was denied an Olympic gold medal. Not in top form, he lost to his compatriot and defending champion Sebastian Coe at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles .

At the peak of his performance curve on July 16, 1985 in Nice , Cram improved the more than two-year-old world record of his compatriot Steve Ovett over 1500 meters by more than one second to 3: 29.67 min. In this duel with the Moroccan Saïd Aouita , he was the first and Aouita the second to stay below the 3:30 minute mark over 1500 meters. Eleven days later, on July 27, 1985 , he set a new world record over a mile at the Bislett Games in Oslo and improved Sebastian Coe's four-year-old record by one second to 3: 46.32 minutes.

In Edinburgh at the 1986 Commonwealth Games , Cram won both middle distances by more than a second each. At the European Championships in 1986 he won bronze over 800 meters behind Coe and the Scotsman Tom McKean . He won over 1500 meters ahead of Coe and defended his 1982 title.

After that, Cram was often injured and was only able to show his class occasionally. At the Olympic Games in Seoul in 1988 he missed the bronze medal by three hundredths of a second in fourth in 3: 36.24 minutes. At the European Championships in 1990 he was fifth again.

Cram now works mainly for the BBC as a television presenter and commentator on athletics events.

Personal best

• 800 meters : 1: 42.88 min, 1985
• 1000 meters : 2: 12.88 min, 1985
• 1500 meters : 3: 29.67 min, 1985
• 1 mile : 3: 46.32 min, 1985
• 3000 meters : 7: 43.1 min, 1983
• 5000 meters : 13: 28.58 min, 1989

literature

• Peter Matthews: Athletics 1994 . London 1994 ISBN 1-873-05721-0

Web links

• Steve Cram in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )