My greatest race: Tom McKean

Scottish 800m runner looks back on his European victory in Split in 1990 in 1:44.76

The 1986 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh were my first real major championship. Steve Cram kicked in the back straight and left me, and then I passed everybody else once I woke up. When it came to the Europeans later that summer, I didn’t really think about anything else other than: “Crammy is going to try and take me in the back straight again”. So I thought: “When Crammy kicks, kick!”

Seb Coe was supposed to be coming back from glandular fever so I thought: “If I can keep Crammy, who probably looked to be the favourite, at bay then I’ve got a very good chance.” I was tactically superb but Coe beat me. I couldn’t have run any differently. I couldn’t have given anything differently. He just nipped me on the line.

At that point, I was still under the radar. Nobody expected me to be around again. In the commentary at the Europeans, with 200m to go, the commentator’s going: “Cram is ready to go and, oh, McKean still there.” That type of thing.

But, coming in four years later, it was slightly different. In 1989, I’d run 1:43.88 and no-one had done better in that year. No European had beaten me for three years by that point so I knew I was in very good shape for the Europeans. It was just about me getting my head around that I was favourite and how to eliminate problems.

I got through the heats and the semis, and the [British team] head coach Frank Dick came up to me at the training track. He said he knew I was nervous because I was expecting to run well, and I was half a second faster than anyone in Europe at the time. He asked me: “If I’m Tom McKean and you’re Frank Dick, how would you tell me to run the race?”

And he just switched my mind round. Jokingly, I said what I would tell him was to: “Front run the first lap in 51 seconds, nice and comfortable. It’s all within your speed range, watch on the back straight, and then kick with 160-170m to go and nobody will touch you.”

Frank said: “Well, what’s your problem?” And then he walked away. After that, I was all right. I did 51 bang on for the split. I expected them to attack me on the back straight, but I went, so the plan executed really well.

Unlike the Kenyans, who did run as teams, we British didn’t talk about the race. It was just a case of let’s all go for ourselves. When I went off hard, so did David Sharpe, and he tried to get in front of me and slow…