In another startling breakthrough performance Nicholas Griggs has broken the European Under-20 indoor mile record, clocking a magnificent 3:56.40, less than three months after turning 17.
Also breaking four minutes for the first time, Griggs was part of a brilliant race at the final National Indoor Athletics Live meeting at Abbotstown, chasing down Andrew Coscoran all the way to the line, who took the win in 3:56:27
Last month Coscoran ran a 3:53 mile when winning World Athletics Indoor Tour mile in New York, only was pressed all the way to the line here by Griggs, the 17 year-old from Mid Ulster AC duly smashing the previous European Under-20 mark of 4:02.33 set by Britain’s Robbie-Farnham Rose in the US, back in 2013.
Coscoran, an Olympic 1,500m semi-finalist in Tokyo, was tuning up for the World Indoor Championships in Belgrade next weekend, and certainly needed to be at his best to hold off the most impressive finish of Griggs.
Griggs already broke fresh barriers of his own not once but twice last month, two major improvements in five days to be exact: also running at the Sport Ireland National Indoor Arena in Abbotstown in February, and two months after his 17th birthday, he became the first Irish teenager to break eight minutes for the 3,000m indoors, his Irish Under-20 record of 7:57:38 all the more impressive given he ran the second half of that race entirely alone.
Three days later at the same venue, Griggs again ran away with the 1,500m with considerable flair, clocking another Under-20 record of 3:43:71, breaking 3:50 for the first time, improving the previous indoor record of 3:44.85 set by Cian McPhillips in 2020.
As good as these recent times are they’re not entirely surprising: Griggs first made a name for himself last July, aged 16, when he won the 3,000m at the European Under-20 Championships in Tallinn, Estonia, blitzing the field of runners most of which were two or three years his senior.
His 3:56.40 indoor mile is by far the fastest ever run by an Irish 17 year old, indoors or out, and augers superbly well once again for what might come outdoors this summer.
