Then in the European Cup 1500m,[7] Ovett produced a last lap of 52.4 seconds to win a fiercely competitive race just ahead of his friend and rival Thomas Wessinghage.

At the inaugural IAAF World Cup in Athletics, he commenced a "kick" with 200m to go, running the final turn in 11.8 s and the last 200m in 25.1 s. He left John Walker and the rest of the field far behind.

The British public by now showed a keen interest in Ovett, and it was at the European Championships in 1978, that he raced against Sebastian Coe for the first time in their senior careers, beginning a rivalry that was widely covered.

He led Coe in the 800m and appeared to be on his way to gold, before being caught by the East German Olaf Beyer, whose time of 1:44:09 turned out to be his fastest ever 800m run.

In that race, Ovett waved to the crowd on the home straight and clearly slowed down in the last metres yet still won by over a second from Ireland's Eamonn Coghlan.

During his career, Ovett was noted for the unusual range of his races; shortly before the 1980 Olympics, he ran four events of four different lengths in 10 days: a mile in Oslo, 800 metres in Gothenburg, 600m at Crystal Palace and 3,000m in Welwyn Garden City.

In 1977, when an airline strike forced him to miss a scheduled event, he signed up at the last minute for the Dartford half-marathon and won it with ease, wearing borrowed shoes, in a time of 1:05:38,[10] running a course more than twice as long as anything he had attempted in public before, against the British marathon champion.

[11] Earlier that month, he had established a new mile world record of 3:48.8 and two weeks later equalled Sebastian Coe's world record of 3:32.1 in the 1500 m. The Moscow Olympics marked only the second time that Ovett and Coe had met each other in international competition (the first being the 800 m in the 1978 European Championships), and there was huge media speculation over which would emerge as the greater.

During the race Tom Byers, who had been asked to act as a pacemaker set off quickly and the pack, being given the split times for the leader and believing that they were going faster than they actually were, declined to follow his pace.

[13] In 1984, after a successful season of winter training in Australia, Ovett's progress was slightly hampered by minor injuries and a bout of bronchitis.

He attempted to defend his 800 m title in the 1984 Olympic Games, but after arriving in Los Angeles he began to suffer from respiratory problems.

[11] He was unlucky to be drawn against eventual winner Joaquim Cruz in each of his two heats and also the semi-final, in which he only narrowly qualified for the final, lunging for the finish in 4th place and appearing to collapse over the line.

Against the advice of his friends and doctors, he returned a few days later to compete in the 1500 m. Running in fourth place at the beginning of the last lap of the final, Ovett dropped out.

However, the following month, in the European Championships, he failed to finish in hot conditions, allowing Jack Buckner (GB) - whom Ovett had beaten with consummate ease in Edinburgh - to win the gold.

[17][18] Ovett's son Freddy also showed promise as a middle distance runner, winning the U-13 Pan-Pacific 800m title,[9] before switching to road cycling after sustaining a knee injury whilst at the University of Oregon.