Twenty five years ago Steve Cram was at his peak. He broke three different world records in the space of 19 unprecedented days. Chief Sports Writer Scott Wilson looks back at the Jarrow Arrow’s memorable summer.

THE summer of 1985 was a special season for sport. England’s cricketers defeated Australia to win the Ashes, Sandy Lyle won a memorable Open Championship at Royal St George’s and an unseeded player named Boris Becker became the youngest ever Grand Slam champion when he won the men’s singles title at Wimbledon.

All memorable moments; all eclipsed by the performances of a wiry middle-distance runner from Jarrow.

The summer of ’85 belonged to Steve Cram. Or, to be more precise, three weeks in late July and early August were dominated by the feats of the ‘Jarrow Arrow’ as he recorded an unprecedented hat-trick that has not been repeated since.

In the space of 19 days, Cram broke three world records over three different distances.

It was an incredible feat of speed, stamina and indefatigable mental strength, and it held a nation captivated in front of its television sets.

This was a time when athletics, not football, was the major sport on TV, and it was not unusual for audiences of more than 10m to settle in front of their sets for a midweek meeting in Oslo or Lausanne.

Cram’s achievements were front-page news, and 25 years on, athletes from the era gathered in London on Thursday night to celebrate the anniversary.

“I look back on it as a bit of a golden era for British athletics,” said Cram. No one who remembers it would disagree.

CRAM’S first world record came in a 1,500m race at the Nice Grand Prix on July 16.

There had been a hint of what might happen 12 months earlier, when the North-Easterner claimed a 1,500m Olympic silver medal behind Seb Coe in Los Angeles, but injuries had hampered the remainder of his campaign.

He returned at the start of 1985 in better shape and had posted a number of decent performances prior to lining up in Nice.

The race had been billed as a possible opportunity to challenge Steve Ovett’s twoyear- old world record, but that challenge was expected to come from Moroccan Said Aouita.

Aouita had been sweeping all before him on the Grand Prix circuit, but Cram settled behind the early leaders and struck for home at the bend after the bell.

He broke clear down the back straight, and appeared to be home and hosed rounding the final bend.

Aouita responded however, and Cram needed every ounce of his stamina to win by fourhundredths of a second in a time of 3:29.71.

The pair became the first runners in history to break the 3 minute 30 second barrier, with Cram shaving almost a second off Ovett’s previous world best.

“Coming into the final straight, the crowd was yelling so much I couldn’t tell if anyone was close to breaking the world record,”

he said at the time. “I didn’t see Aouita was close to me until the last 20 metres. I saw no shadows on the straight, so I thought the race was over.”

Cram was sticking to a rigid training programme at the time, but the aftermath of the race forced him to abandon his no-alcohol policy.

“After breaking the world record, I had to go to dope control,” he explained. “I don’t normally drink but I had a couple of beers, as beers are a good diuretic, to help give a sample.

“Later, I was invited to a club with some of the ITV lads and had some champagne. My memory is a bit fuzzy but I ended up on stage with Said Aouita, him playing the guitar and me the drums, or the other way round.”

RECORD two came 11 days later at the prestigious Bislett Games in Oslo. The 1,500m was all well and good, but at the time, the mile was the blue riband event of the middledistance world.

Coe held the record when Cram travelled to Norway, and the pair were pitted against each other on a track that had earned a reputation for rewriting the record books.

Sure enough, history was made as Cram won in 3:46.32 to set a mark that would remain unbroken for the next eight years.

Lining up against 12 opponents, Cram, in his trademark yellow vest, settled in third position on the opening lap.

“The pace wasn’t easy, but it was relaxed,” he would say later.

As a renowned 800m runner, Coe’s finishing kick was more pronounced than Cram’s. The North-Easterner would have to draw his opponent’s sting by going for home early and, sure enough, with 360m to go, he found another gear.

He extended his lead on the back straight and, while Coe had come through into second, he tore unchallenged down the final straight.

Having stolen a few glances down the stretch, he raised his arms to cross the tape in a time that chipped 1.02 seconds off Coe’s previous world best.

“When you’re running as hard as I was, and the guy ahead is looking casually from side to side, you know,” said Coe.

“I’m sorry to be so predictable,” joked Cram, when he was asked to describe his tactics.

TWO down, one more to go, and Cram lined up for a rare 2,000m race in Budapest on August 4 with the British public daring to dream that another world record was possible.

This was a different race entirely, as while Cram’s previous world bests had come in competitive races against Aouita and Coe, his tilt at the 2,000m mark saw him racing solely against the clock.

The rest of the field was largely an irrelevance as the Briton honed in on New Zealander John Walker’s long-standing world record.

“When I came into the sport, John was the elder statesman,” said Cram.

“He was the person who would be sent in if there were any complaints.

“He was the shop steward with his fellow New Zealand runners Dick Quax and Rod Dixon. John was a huge character.”

His record, however, would prove no match for an in-form Cram.

The 1983 world champion was inside world-record pace for the majority of the evening, eventually finishing in 4:51.39, a time that is still the fastest ever recorded by a European.

The 19-day period would be the high point of his career, as a succession of injuries prevented him claiming the Olympic gold medal his talent undoubtedly merited.

“The disappointing thing for me was that in the last three to four years, I couldn’t perform consistently at the highest level because of injuries,” said Cram.

“When I was pushing 30 and beyond I’d like to have been more competitive, but I was repeatedly injured and it became terribly frustrating.

However, I can hardly complain, can I?”