Sebastian Coe tips Jake Wightman to challenge for unprecedented treble

Sebastian Coe has hailed Jake Wightman’s stunning 1500m world championship gold in Eugene and says it shows Britain has its greatest generation of middle-distance runners since the glory days of the 70s and 80s.

The World Athletics president also urged Wightman to take advantage of his “purple patch” by winning an unprecedented treble of world, Commonwealth and European gold in the next month.

“This is massive for British athletics,” said Coe, who presented Wightman with his gold medal in Eugene. “It’s the best pool of athletes we’ve had for a long time. And Jake could soon end up with three of the four slams, because there’s no reason why he shouldn’t win the Commonwealth and Europeans. He will know that. And you have to say, putting the kiss of death on it, he has done the hardest one first.”

Coe also pointed out that, owing to the nature of the athletics calendar, Wightman had a shot of winning two world titles and the Olympics in the next two years. “This is potentially a real purple patch for him,” he said. “He is defending that next year and then, hopefully, in great shape for the Olympics a year later. If he can log all that, he could technically end up as the most successful British middle distance runner we have ever had.”

Coe also stressed that the pool of talented British runners was deeper than it had been for generations, with Laura Muir claiming Olympic and world medals, Keely Hodgkinson taking 800m silver in Tokyo, and Josh Kerr winning bronze. Max Burgin, who pulled out of the 800m heats in Eugene owing to injury, is also the fastest over the distance this year.

Asked if this was the greatest generation since the era of Coe, Steve Ovett, Steve Cram and Peter Elliot, Coe nodded. “Yes, but it needed Jake to