We meet for lunch at L’Antico, a friendly Italian restaurant near Stamford Bridge, home of Chelsea, champions of Europe, and the club Seb Coe follows as a season-ticket holder.
This place has played host to countless Coe family functions, including his son Harry’s lively 18th birthday, but it is still standing. So familiar is Coe with it that he does not require the menu to order.
A regular companion on lunch and dinner occasions here is another Olympic legend, Daley Thompson, who this minute has just won himself yet another award on the street outside — a parking ticket from an over-zealous warden as he tried to work his phone to pay for the space.