Sebastian Coe sat on the banks of the Yarra river, soaking up the sun and savouring one last coffee before flying back to Britain with a mind full of lessons on how the 18th Commonwealth Games could help London 2012 deliver an unforgettable Olympics.

One is the brilliant fashion in which Melbourne has used its famous river to bring city and Games together.

Another is the reality that every penny of the extra £200m pumped into British athletics this last week will be needed if Britain and its underperforming athletes are to hit its fourth-placed target in London.

Yet another is not to tell a cracking story if you don't want to be stopped every five minutes on the banks of the Yarra and asked to repeat it.

The tale in question is one told by Coe at a special breakfast with old rival Steve Ovett last week and which appears to have spread to every corner of this city, rather like the blue-shirted volunteers, some of whom are so zealously helpful they would probably pick your nose if you asked them to.

Imagine the scene. Prague 1978. European Championships. Coe and Ovett are battling down the home straight in the 800m when a little-known East German athlete called Olaf Beyer surges past them both in the last few strides to take gold, leaving Ovett with silver and Coe with bronze.

As the two Britons leave the track side by side Ovett turns to Coe and spits out an obvious obscenity which is reported next day by the tabloids as 'Coe and Ovett in track bust-up,' a banner headline which helped to fuel the perceived emnity between the pair.

"What he actually said," revealed Coe, pausing for effect and chuckling again at the incredulity in Ovett's tone 28 years ago, was 'Who the **** was that?'

"I've been asked about that story more times this past week than anything else."

The story is all the more alluring because the F-word sits so uncomfortably amid Coe's cultured vowels.

Almost as awkwardly, in fact, as the thought of Linford Christie being involved with coaching Britain's sprinters, an idea advocated by Darren Campbell after the men's 4x100m relay team had consorted to produce the most embarrassing 'Did not Finish' of the entire Games.

"Do not confuse coaching with inspiration and mentoring," said Coe to the question of whether Christie, whose Olympic gold medal-winning career ended with a failed drugs test, should be hired.

"If you have athletes like Daley Thompson and Steve Backley and Jonathan Edwards all around major championships I think they should be used in a constructive way.

"But we should not confuse that with 24/7 coaching. That's what coaching is. I know because I had the best middle-distance coach in the world.

"Colin Jackson knows what coaching's about because he had the best sprints coach we had in this country, Malcolm Arnold.

"Yes of course enshrine people like Daley and Steve and Jonathan into the process but coaching is very different.

"Coaching is about being with an athlete for six, seven, 10 years. It's about delivering throughout the most difficult phase of their career."

We'll take that as a 'No' for Christie then.

Coe spouts his coaching ethos like a mantra. Has been doing so these past two weeks. He is envious particularly of the way Bill Sweetenham's methods appear to have raised the bar spectacularly with British swimmers, who won 15 gold medals here.

He also believes that British athletics blasted off a toe or two when it allowed Charles van Commonee, renowned as one of the world's leading field event experts, to leave the country.

"If you don't have world class coaching you don't have people on rostrums. There are no happy accidents," said Coe.

"We did have someone here in Charles van Commonee, who left UK athletics and went off to Holland.

"He was a world class coach who produced Denise Lewis and Kelly Sotherton. We've had them in the system but we don't have a big enough critical mass of coaches.

"At the European Junior championships we are doing very well, we have some good talent. What we are not doing very well in the UK is moving that talent from promising junior to delivering senior."

Marks out of 10 for British athletics?

"Not very high, that's all I'll say," says Coe. "They are now behind a number of our Olympic sports, cycling and certainly swimming.

"These guys are performing. A lot of what has happened in swimming here is down to the individual coaches within the federation. I take my hat off to the work they have done."

The athletes, of course, are not Coe's prime concern although it is clearly difficult to take a foot out of a camp you have inhabited so auspiciously.

Coe's brief is to deliver a great Games in six years time and don't be surprised if one or two familiar themes from Melbourne crop up.

"We had 11 observers out here, looking at everything from transport to the way the media operation runs to security, marketing, all sorts of things," said Coe.

"I have learned the importance of integrating a city from the opening ceremony through to the use of the river and was impressed with the free live sites and the big screens, particularly the way at the marathon they put up seats and a big screen for the spectators and had people explaining what was going on.

"People were not sat there for three hours waiting for 20 athletes to come by, 35 seconds towards you, 35 seconds away. They were part of the two-hour process.

"In London we can do that better than anyone. We have a river and some of the most famous landmarks in the world."

With that he was off to London with a little more ammunition to fuel his dream.