Track legend Steve Cram praises ‘risk taker’ Jake Wightman after becoming the first Briton in 29 YEARS to run to the 1500m gold at the World Athletics Championships
Steve Cram was full of superlatives for Wightman after his gold medal in Oregon
Cram admitted he was emotional as he commented on Wightman’s 1500m win
Former star praises Wightman for his risky strategy that paid off in the final
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For Steve Cram, it was harder than ever to stay composed on commentary as Jake Wightman sprinted to gold at the World Championships in Oregon on Tuesday night.
Cram was the last British athlete to win a world title in the 1500m and take gold in Helsinki in 1983, but a 29-year wait came to an end when Wightman held off Olympic champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen in a thrilling final.
“You’re always just a little more emotionally charged,” Cram said of his race appeal to the BBC. “It’s my event, it’s a Brit winning, and that gave me a kick. If you call someone home to win a gold medal when you didn’t expect it, it’s much more satisfying.”
Steve Cram was the last Briton to win gold in the 1500 meters at the 1983 World Championships in Athletics
Cram praised Wightman doing a do-or-die move to stay ahead of the pack
Track legend Cram admitted the Oregon race was one of the best tactical races he’s seen
Cram was due to interview Wightman in Eugene on Wednesday and he planned to apologize to the new world champion for “almost handing him the gold medal 40 or 50 meters away.”
The two know each other well. Cram’s son competed with Wightman at the school level, and he remembers the slow, steady progress that defined Wightman’s rise.
‘It has been a gradual development. He’s a great story for those who don’t break age group records. Josh Kerr, on the other hand, has broken every U13, U15 and U17 record. Jake doesn’t. But it has given him the opportunity to keep doing what he does: getting better and better.’
In the 1983 world final, Cram followed main rival Said Aouita and sprinted forward to enter the final corner – the same tactic Wightman used.
Wightman emulated Cram with his gold medal win at the World Athletics Championships
“It’s very easy to just sit and wait and make things happen, hold on and hold on, then get on the right track and think, ‘OK, do I have a chance now?’ The hardest thing is to commit.
Jake felt that with 300 to go he had a chance: he sat on Ingebrigtsen’s shoulder and he had expected that he would really react, and the reaction was not a wave.
That got Jake thinking, ‘Wait a minute, there’s not much.’ He made a move to win the race and maybe he ran out of legs at home, but you have to support yourself, you have to take the risk. That earned him the gold medal.’
Cram paid tribute to Wightman – “one of the best racers I’ve ever seen in terms of tactics” – for the bravery of that race-winning move. “He thought, ‘If I don’t go now, it might be too late.’ You have to roll your dice, and he did it brilliantly.’