Olympics: Coe Postpones Trip to Be With Sick Father

Sebastian Coe, chairman of the London 2012 organizing committee, has postponed his arrival in Beijing to be with his father Peter, who is seriously ill in hospital.

Coe was due to update the International Olympic Committee session on London's progress this afternoon with Paul Deighton, the Locog chief executive who will now address the IOC alone.

Peter was and remains a hugely influential figure in Coe's career. An engineer by training, he gave up his day job to concentrate on guiding his son's career when Seb demonstrated his huge potential as a teenager.

Peter Coe was dissatisfied with what he considered to be the haphazard nature of distance-running training techniques, and despite having no formal training in physiology or experience of athletics went on to introduce revolutionary techniques.

He was notoriously tough on his son and refused to let family ties cloud the pursuit of excellence, a situation that drew persistent media speculation about the nature of their relationship.

That it succeeded in bringing the best out of Coe was beyond question, with two Olympic gold medals and a host of world records standing as testimony to the skill and commitment of father and son.