Alberto Cova had an uncanny knack of always winning the 10000m event at
major international championships, usually with the willing assistance
of his rivals. Cova had a devastating sprint finish, and the only way
that his opponents could hope to nullify his kick was to set a fast
tempo, but time and time again, they allowed the pace to dawdle, playing
right into Cova's hands. At the 1982 European Championships in Athens,
Cova used his sprint finish to great effect, snatching a surprise
victory from East German favourite Werner Schildhauer in 27min 41.03sec.
In 1983, Alberto set what eventually would become his career-best time
of 27min 39.59sec when he finished second to Fernando Mamede (Portugal)
at Lausanne on 30 June.
Although Cova was considered one of the
potential medalists at the inaugural World Championships held later
that year in Helsinki, he was by no means an overwhelming favourite, as
five athletes who competed at Helsinki had much faster times for the
season than Cova's newly-created career best. However, in the Helsinki
final on 9 August, the men with faster times allowed the pace to dawdle,
with nothing really happening until 600 metres to go. At that point,
Schildhauer broke away from the leading pack which still numbered
thirteen, and headed for home. The last lap was run at a furious pace,
with only four athletes managing to stay in contact with Schildhauer.
With only 30 metres to go, any of the five could have possibly won, but
then Cova, in fifth place, burst past the other four in a devastating
sprint to win the gold medal in a slow overall time of 28min 01.04sec.
His last 300 metres however, had been covered in only 38.7 seconds, and
he thoroughly deserved the accolades he received on his victory lap (see photo above). (Ron Casey)
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