Athletics

Andrew Coscoran fulfils prophecy as he sets new Irish 1,500m record

Dubliner’s run of 3:33.49 beats long-held Irish marks for both indoor and outdoor at the distance

Andrew Coscoran set a new Irish record for the 1,500m at the World Indoor Tour meeting in Birmingham. Photograph: Simon Hofmann/Getty Images
Andrew Coscoran set a new Irish record for the 1,500m at the World Indoor Tour meeting in Birmingham. Photograph: Simon Hofmann/Getty Images
Sat Feb 25 2023 - 16:02

He always said that some day the record would fall and on Saturday afternoon Andrew Coscoran got down to exactly that, breaking both the Irish indoor and outdoor 1,500 metres with a smashing time of 3:33.49 at the World Indoor Tour meeting in Birmingham.

They were two of the longest-standing records in Irish athletics, Ray Flynn’s outdoor mark of 3:33.5 going back 41 years, clocked during the Dream Mile run in Oslo back in July 1982, with the previous indoor mark of 3:35.4 belonging to Marcus O’Sullivan since 1988, also clocked en route to a mile win in New Jersey in 1988.

Coscoran nailed third in a superfast race, one place ahead of Luke McCann, who also ran a whopping new lifetime best of 3:34.76, also inside O’Sullivan’s indoor mark.

Equally impressive was the new Irish under-20 record of 3:39.94 by Tyrone teenager Nicholas Griggs, who ran a magnificently paced run to nail seventh place – the 18-year-old also running faster than both the existing indoor and outdoor record, the first Irish teenager to break 3:40.

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Both Coscoran and McCann committed to the fast pace, set up for Josh Kerr to break his own British indoor mark; instead, the Tokyo bronze-medal winner faded to fifth, with Neil Gourley taking the win and that British record to 3:32.5.

For Coscoran, the 26-year-old from north Dublin and member of the Dublin Track Club coached by Feidhlim Kelly, it augers exceptionally well for next weekend’s European Indoor Championships in Birmingham, and likewise for McCann, the UCD student still only 24 and improving with almost every race.

Coscoran improved on his previous indoor best of 3:37.20 by some four seconds, set in Lievin in France in 2021, McCann improved his previous indoor best of 3:38.14, set in the mile in New York earlier this month.

Outdoors, Coscoran’s previous best was 3:35.43, set last September, McCann’s previous best of 3:35.65 run last July.

Griggs improved his own under-20 indoor mark of 3:43.71, set in Abbotstown last year, Griggs also inside the outdoor mark of 3:40.56 which Cian McPhillips clocked in 2021.