Glory Night at Feelgood Stadium

By Ezra Bowen

Steve Cram, a slender and mellow police constable's son from the sooty British town of Jarrow on the Tyne, is one of those extraordinary competitors who seem to know just what they can do in the course of a given race. And then, in an elegant, almost preordained fashion, he simply goes out and does it. In the weeks before this summer's highly touted Dream Mile at Bislett Stadium in Oslo, Cram, 24, was clearly on a roll. On July 16 in Nice, France, he had smashed the world 1,500-meter mark by 1.10 sec. with a beautifully structured performance in 3:29.67. So, coming into Oslo with the track world now focused on his run at Olympic Champion Sebastian Coe's four-year-old mile record of 3:47.33, everything felt just right.

Moreover, Bislett Stadium was exactly where Cram wanted to be. "If you can't run well at Bislett, you're not running well anywhere," Cram said to reporters. "You know you're going to run fast whenever you come here." And he added later, "The atmosphere is electric ... it lifts you up." Most world-class runners agree. In the long Norse summer evenings, the air at Bislett is still and cool, so that neither wind nor heat oppresses the competitors. And the frequent rain showers leave a quickening aura of freshness, almost as if there were more oxygen to be gulped down to infuse the muscles with sustained power. The track itself, a recently installed Rekortan surface, is as fast as a fine track should be, though it has no unique properties for generating speed. But the tight old stadium, with its narrow six-lane oval walled in by chanting crowds of passionately knowledgeable Oslo running fans, seems to elicit special heroics from competitors. The athletes feel, in the words of retired U.S. Runner Marty Liquori, who commented on the race for ABC-TV, as though they are being pushed along "in a tunnel of sound." No fewer than 42 world records had been set there since 1924. The meet two weekends ago added three more in what Track Writer Kenny Moore of SPORTS ILLUSTRATED called "the most magnificent evening of distance running in history."

First, Norway's Ingrid Kristiansen rode the roar of the hometown aficionados to a 10,000-meter time of 30:59.42, a vast 14.36 sec. better than the old record. Next, Morocco's Said Aouita just out-dueled the U.S.'s Sydney Maree, shaving .01 sec. off the 5,000-meter record with his 13:00.40. Finally, Cram and Coe, 28, came onstage with eleven others for the classic confrontation to determine who would reign among the world's milers. Many experts, including Cram in his quiet, pleasant way, felt that the outcome was virtually certain. One possible question was Cram's occasionally tender left calf, which had been tweaking him after the Nice race. But in the final days before Oslo, the leg felt comfortable and strong, and Cram seemed unworried about any possible reinjury. His victory plan was a simple one: start fast and run Coe into the ground.

The two broke smoothly and whirled through the first two laps in perfect position just behind the early leaders with Coe right on Cram's back. Coe stayed with his younger rival through the third lap, and for a moment, at the bell for the final lap, Coe seemed to be gaining. But then Cram, whose shock of curly blond hair, perfect legs and finely sculpted features give him the look of a Greek demigod, began to turn up the burners, rolling faster and faster with no apparent strain. As the field stretched out in the last lap, he was simply flying, moving toward the front as Coe, arms pumping, tried to hang on. Coming out of the final turn, Cram, who commented later that he thought the pace a bit slow, lifted his effort still higher, beyond the reach of the mere mortals on the track. With the overflow crowd of 19,231 booming rhythmic hurrahs, Cram was suddenly out front with a widening lead as Coe and the others broke and fell back. Even before reaching the tape, Cram began to celebrate his victory, both arms raised overhead as he casually glanced around at the crowd.

If "you're running as fast as I was," Coe said later to the London Daily Mail, "and there's this guy ahead so relaxed he can look behind, you know you're in trouble." When the time went up, Cram had broken Coe's record by a full 1.02 sec. in an awesome 3:46.31. Awesome to all but Cram apparently. "With a better third lap I could have done 3:45," he told reporters. Hubris? Just a true hero's Olympian standards. "If I feel that I can't improve on my form," Cram said, "then I will pack it in." --By Ezra Bowen. Reported by Bent Onsager/Oslo

With reporting by Reported by Bent Onsager/Oslo