Athletics: A new glorious era not so distant as East meets best

A young middle-distance star has emerged who can bridge gap to the golden age

Sitting in a quiet corner of the City of Manchester Stadium late on Wednesday night, Mike East was hardly basking in a golden glow. "I've just been dragged through doping, which is a pain in the neck," he said. "I haven't had a chance to see my family, my friends or my coach yet. And I really need to start preparing for the Europeans as well." "Hang on a minute," someone interjected. "Surely the European championships aren't on your mind when you've just won a Commonwealth title?" "Ah, well," East said, "you have to crack on to the next one, haven't you? No rest for the wicked. I've got all my washing to do before I pack for Munich." And this from the young man who, just two hours earlier, had successfully bridged the historical gap back to the golden age of British middle distance running.

East's brilliantly executed victory in the Commonwealth Games 1500m final was the first major championship success at the distance by a British man since Peter Elliott won the same title in Auckland in 1990. The Portsmouth man is nothing if not a pragmatist, though, which is probably just as well. Anyone who saw him follow his astute run for 1500m bronze at the European indoor championships in Vienna in March with his Midas-touched performance in Manchester, will inevitably be drawing a thread back to the golden days of Elliott, Steve Ovett, Sebastian Coe and Steve Cram. As it happened, Elliott was himself the first to race down the steps to trackside to proffer his personal seal of approval.

"So what does it feel like to finally become a has-been, then?" the South Yorkshireman was asked, on behalf of the fab four? "Fabulous," Elliott replied. "Hopefully this is the start of a new era for British middle-distance running. Instead of Coe, Ovett, Cram and Elliott, it might be Coe, Ovett, Cram, Elliott and East. It's been a long time coming." The new golden boy was grateful for the congratulatory handshake that followed, and clearly chuffed to learn that he had become the first major championship metric mile winner from these shores since Elliott 12 years ago. His ego, however, was far from inflated by his bracketing with the golden boys of old. "Well, I've had it all since Vienna, the whole time," he said, with not a little exasperation. "Even at the AAA championship the other week they did a thing on the BBC mentioning all those athletes and they whacked my name on the end.

"The thing is I can't change what's happened with those guys. All I can work on is the here and now. I know what I can do but I can't do a great deal about Coe and Ovett running the times they did and doing what they did. So I do ignore it. I just don't pay any attention to it at all."

In that regard, it must help that the new Commonwealth 1500m champion – having been born in 1978, the year Ovett and Coe had their first big clash, in the 800m final at the European championships in Prague – is too young to have watched the golden oldies in action. "I have no memory of them running," East said. "Not even of Peter. I never saw any of their races. With Coe and Ovett, there was a programme on television a few years ago called Clash of the Titans. I did video that. It's a cracking documentary I've watched it a couple of times. But you've got to focus on who's running well in the present. I can't do anything about the past." In the recent past, since he scraped into the British team for the European indoor championships five months ago, the 24-year-old East has come a long way under the expert guidance of his coach Mark Rowland, bronze medallist in the 3,000m steeplechase at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul. A former junior and under-23 international, East was the fifth fastest 1500m runner in Britain last year, with a best time of 3min 38.94sec, which was still the quickest of his life when he lined up in the Commonwealth final on Wednesday night. In terms of personal bests, he was the tenth fastest man in a field which included William Chirchir, the Kenyan who finished fourth in the world championship final in Edmonton last summer and who has run 3:29.29, faster than Coe, Ovett, Cram and Elliott ever managed for 1500m. As he had done in Vienna, though, East once again belied his lack of experience, tracking the three leaders as they broke at the bell, moving wide round the final bend when Anthony Whiteman kicked ahead with 200m remaining, and launching his perfectly-timed attack at the head of the home straight. He hit the front with 10m remaining, crossing the line 0.35sec clear of Chirchir, the clear favourite, in 3:37.35.

Such sharp racing instinct is a rare quality indeed and East has shown it twice now in international championship finals. "I don't know where it comes from," he said. "It's just aggressiveness, I suppose, especially when you're in a certain position in a race. It's just hunger, being hungry." Not that East's hunger was quite so keen on Wednesday morning. He was having breakfast in the Games Village when Rob Denmark sidled up and asked him if was true that he had been disqualified after his semi-final the previous night. East left his Weetabix unfinished and headed straight for the team management office, where he was informed that the threat of disqualification had indeed hung over him but that a protest on behalf of the Canadian Kevin Sullivan, who had been barged by the Briton but still qualified, had been overruled.

As it was, East ran the race of his life on Wednesday night and then collected his reward from no less a middle-distance man than Sir Roger Bannister. "He said to me, 'Obviously it's very nice to see someone from this country win in the metric mile'," East recounted. "He wanted to know how old I was and when I told him he said, 'Oh, okay. It can happen again next time'." Whether it can happen again in the European 1500m final we shall see in Munich on Thursday night. "Next week is going to be a completely different ball game," East said. "Okay, you had the Kenyans here tonight, but in Munich you'll have the Spanish the French and a Portuguese runner in Rui Silva. It's going to be tough, very tough." It is indeed, though the Commonwealth champion can count on some support from home in the Olympiastadion. At the Norwich Union indoor Grand Prix meeting in Birmingham in February his wife, Claire, won a competition for a free trip to the championships.

At least she will be able to make use of her pass. When the tickets for the final session of Commonwealth Games athletics action went on sale last autumn, her husband was one of the first in the queue. He didn't want to miss out on seeing the men's 1500m final. He needn't have worried. As it happened, Mike East had the best seat in the house. He saw it all the way from the winner's perspective.

Gold fingered Five threats to British glory

Francis Obikwelu (Portugal, sprints)

You have to go back to the 1982 championships to find the last non-British winner of the European 100m crown. The lengthy gap to the success of the long-legged East German Frank Emmelmann could well be closed in Munich, particularly if Dwain Chambers has not recovered – mentally, not to mention physically – from the Commonwealth Games 100m final and if Darren Campbell, the current holder of the title, is suffering from post-Manchester blues. Having gained Portuguese citizenship last year, Obikwelu, a world championship 200m bronze medallist for Nigeria in Seville in 1999, should pose a serious threat.

Ingo Schultz (Germany, 400m)

Daniel Caines emerged from the 400m in Manchester with the fastest time of the Games (a personal best 44.98sec from the semi-finals) but without a medal. The world indoor champion's hopes of redemption with a win in Munich, though, will depend not just on his own form but also on that of Ingo Schultz. The giant German army lieutenant, a former violinist, is one of the surprisingly few home runners favoured to strike gold in Munich. Caines beat him at the European Cup in Annecy in June but Schultz, a surprise world championship silver medallist last summer, has since moved closer to the form that won him that medal.

Christian Olsson (triple jump)

The morning after his victory in Manchester, Jonathan Edwards was congratulated on having gained a full set of major championship titles in his event. "Well, I might only have them for a week," he said. His short-term view was understandable. The Gateshead Harrier has, after all, been beaten this summer by two of the rivals he will face in Munich. He lost to Phillips Idowu in Sheffield in June and his young British team-mate showed in Manchester that he is capable of doing it again. It is Olsson, though, whose threat Edwards fears most, having lost to the 20-year-old Swede twice last summer and in Monaco two weeks ago.

Jolanda Ceplak (Slovenia, 800, 1500m)

Even in her hour of triumph in Manchester on Wednesday night, Kelly Holmes recognised she will have to "step up a gear" if she is to finish among the European medals in Munich. The Commonwealth 1500m champion will, in fact, have to step up several gears if she is to finish in the gold medal position in the 800m, and possibly in the 1500m too. Holmes has yet to break two minutes for 800m this summer; Ceplak has run 1 min 55.19sec. The Slovene who broke the world indoor 800m record in an epic battle with Steffi Graf at the European indoor championships in Vienna in February is also entered for the 1500m with Holmes.

Sonia O'Sullivan (Ireland, distance events)

Of all the millions of television viewers who witnessed Paula Radcliffe's 5,000m run in Manchester last Sunday, none would have watched closer than the Irishwoman who will have to beat her if she is to defend successfully her 10,000m and 5,000m titles in Munich. O'Sullivan has been in fine form herself this summer, but she will have to be at her absolute best to have any hope of beating the woman whose winter marathon training has clearly strengthened her armoury for the track. O'Sullivan has outsprinted Radcliffe countless times before, though she will have to stick close enough to Radcliffe in Munich to make her kick count in the closing stages.