The European Athletics Convention 2012 being hosted in Malta has brought to our shores some of the top administrators and outstanding athletes from the European mainland who graced the Olympic podium over the years.
The presence of Sebastian Coe, who, as a humble British citizen, had the unique distinction of winning the 1,500m at the Moscow Olympics, in 1980, and the Los Angeles Games, in 1984, will surely enhance the proceedings of this prestigious forum.
Undoubtedly, Coe’s massive achievements in various spheres of life are the fruits of commitment, resilience and enduring intensity in hard work.
These qualities characterise his career; they have seen him through hard times when he suffered the agony of a bitter defeat in the international sports arena.
In the 800m final in Moscow, a race in which he was the clear favourite, Coe failed miserably only to bounce back four days later in the 1,500m, winning against all odds in fine style.
I was there watching when he made that decisive tactical break at the final bend in his pursuit of excellence. Following so quickly after the bitter gall of defeat in the 800m, he savoured the sweet wine of victory as he knelt down, kissed the ground and, in exultation, looked at the heavens in silent prayer.
Surely, psychology played a major role as he emerged from abysmal defeat to the glorious ecstasy of his first Olympic gold.
In retrospect, the sporting rivalry between the two giants of middle-distance running in the 1980s, namely, Coe and Steve Ovett, was a re-enactment of the screen legend Chariots Of Fire of the 1924 Olympics.
In October 1988, together with a top contemporary athlete, Steve Cram, Coe made a joint attempt for a charitable cause to be the first man to complete a 367m circuit of the historic Great Court of Trinity College in Cambridge while the school clock struck noon – a famous scene from Chariots Of Fire.
This piece of harmless nostalgia in the timelessness of Cambridge brought back bittersweet memories of my last holiday with my wife where we discovered that the name of Ben Jonson was not synonymous with The Hero To Zero Seoul episode but the Elisabethan poet.
Coe, vice president of the International Association of Athletics Federations, subscribes to the classical ideal of the ultimate athlete namely the harmonious development of body and mind, the kalos kagathos of ancient Greece.
A truly Renaissance man he is a graduate of Loughborough University and well-versed in classical and contemporary literature. Recently, Coe expressed the view that it is not only possible but essential that the athlete is encouraged to be as mentally and physically balanced as possible.
At the momentous 1981 Congress in Baden-Baden, when the Olympic Movement was on the verge of collapse, Coe, as chairman of the Athletes’ Commission of the IOC, was a beacon of light in the political turmoil that engulfed sport.
His eloquent speech helped in no small way the cause of sport as a means for a better world.
Twice in the last decade he came from behind with the spectre of a dismal upset facing him.
In 2005, in Singapore, he headed the London bid to host the 2012 Olympics for which Paris was the favourite. With the agony of failure lurking in the Olympic corridors of power, his eloquence and integrity were the deciding factors.
The gloom and doom of the last Olympics are still fresh in our minds as critics from all quarters shot their venomous missiles at Coe and his organising committee. But, in spite of all imaginable difficulties, once again the spirit in Coe’s veins emerged victorious.
Malta welcomes this great sports personality with whose country we share a common bond as members of the British Commonwealth of Nations.