World-class racing usually brings out the best in athletes and so it proved for Andrew Coscoran, the Dublin runner moving himself further up the Irish all-time indoor 1,500 metres list with a new personal best clocking in Liévin on Tuesday night.
Competing at the World Athletics Indoor Tour gold meeting series at Hauts-de-France Pas-de-Calais in the northern French city, Coscoran clocked 3:37.20 to finish fifth in a properly elite race, victory going to Jakob Ingebrigtsen from Norway who ran a new European indoor record of 3:31.80, the fifth fastest in history and a new meeting record to boot.
Qualifying standard
For Coscoran, the 24-year-old running with the Dublin Track Club, his time improved his previous best of 3:37.98, and with that moving himself up two places on the Irish all-time list, now ranked fifth fastest in an event with a long history, Marcus O’Sullivan still holding the number one spot with his 3:35.4 set in 1988. Coscoran’s time is also well inside the qualifying standard for next month’s European Indoor Championships in Poland.
Also competing in Liévin was Nadia Power, a week after she opened her indoor season in record-breaking style by lowering the Irish senior 800 metres mark to 2:02:44; she wasn’t far off that mark when finishing second in her race, clocking 2:03.84, victory on the night going to Poland’s Joanna Jozwik in 2:02.97.
Among the other highlights on the night was the second-fastest men’s 3,000m indoor time in history, Getnet Wale from Ethiopia winning in 7:24.98, just shy of the 7:24.90 world record of Kenya’s Daniel Komen, the top four all running under 7:30.
