Sport: Just How Low Can Coe Go?

A diminutive Briton runs a redoubtable mile

Halfway through his victory lap, a spectator handed Sebastian Coe a hazel branch with the Union Jack attached. Holding the flag high, the slender Englishman rounded the track at Bislett Stadium in Oslo, Norway, while more than 16,000 spectators rose to a standing ovation. But it was not until he reached the athletes' reception center, where his fellow competitors applauded him, that Coe understood what the rumpus was about. Said he: "That really made what I did sink in for the first time."

What he did was stun the track world with a new record for...

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