Seb Coe’s father and lifelong coach Peter Coe, 88, died yesterday morning after a short illness – just as his son was arriving in Beijing for the Olympic Games.

Lord Coe missed Friday night’s opening ceremony to be with his sick father but on landing in Beijing yesterday he was told that he had died.

He will now stay in China until a date for the funeral is set.

Inspiration: Seb Coe with his father Peter in 1980

Despite having no background in coaching, Peter Coe’s innovative training techniques were key to his son’s success.

‘The theory was that to run a world-class 800 metre time you had to run 100 miles a week,’ Seb Coe said in an interview.

‘He cut the distance but still had me running 40 200 metres consecutively with a 30-second recovery.’

Peter Coe was a keen amateur track cyclist but threw his energy into coaching his son, collecting East German and Soviet training manuals and having them translated.

Born in East London, he served in the Merchant Navy in the Second World War, during which his ship was sunk by the Germans. After the war he qualified as an engineer.

‘When I was an athlete, there was nobody better to have in your corner,’ Coe said of his father earlier this month.

‘This is a guy who at 19 was torpedoed in the Atlantic and was one of five survivors from a crew of 200. He said that every year after that had been a bonus.’