There is no disputing it now. When Andrew Coscoran clocked the fastest ever Irish 1,500 metres last February it came with a small asterisk, given he ran it indoors.
Coscoran is now out on his own, becoming the first Irish athlete to run under 3:33 in Nice on Saturday, his winning time of 3:32.68 smashing the 3:33.49 he ran at the World Indoor Tour meeting in Birmingham back in February.
With that time, Coscorcan also took down 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. The previous best Irish indoor mark of 3:35.4 had belonged to Marcus O’Sullivan since 1988, also clocked on route to a mile win in New Jersey in 1988.
Coscoran always said that some day the long-standing records would fall, and now he’s broken them twice in the same season. He nailed the win on the night too, 18-year-old Niels Laros of the Netherlands second in a national senior record of 3:32.89.
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The Meeting Nikaia in Nice has seen plenty of fast 1,500m times over the years – Steve Cram and Noureddine Morceli both setting world records there – and Coscoran’s sub-3:33 moves him well into World Championship final territory, his goal now when Budapest hosts that event at the end of August.
There was another similarly dazzling performance by Nick Griggs in the same race, the 18-year-old from Tyrone smashing the Irish Under-20 record when clocking 3:36.09 in ninth, knocking over four seconds off Cian McPhillips’ previous outdoor mark of 3:40.56.
Griggs, fresh from his A Levels, had run 3:39.94 indoors and is targeting the defence of his European Under-20 title over 3,000m with those championships set for Israel in August.
Coscoran, the 26 year-old from north Dublin and member of the Dublin Track Club coached by Feidhlim Kelly, will now head for an altitude training camp to further his preparations for Budapest, having also won the 1,500m at the FBK Games in June in a more tactical 3:38.97.
Meanwhile, Peter Somba from Dunboyne AC won the first of the Irish Life Race Series with an emphatic victory in the Corkagh Park 5-Mile, with rising Belfast talent Caitlyn Harvey breaking 30 minutes to win the women’s title.
The 5 Miler was the only race in the 2022 series Somba failed to win, and he made no mistake this time, coming through the two-mile mark in 10 minutes flat and winning in 25:35, a minute clear of Celbridge AC’s reigning Irish marathon champion Martin Hoare (26:32) with Roadrunner AC’s Noel McNally (27:23).
Harvey won in 29:52, well clear of Crusaders’ Adrienne Jordan (31:31) and Donore Harrier’s Grace Kennedy-Clarke (31:42).
