Andrew Coscoran turning back the clock and putting the spotlight on Irish 1,500m running

There was a deft Adidas promo about the 1995 World Championships in Gothenburg which had Noureddine Morceli running up a crazy steep hill somewhere, under which the caption read: “Every time I race my head is full of doubts … “Who will finish second? Who will finish third?”

Morceli had already run that kind of talk, the wiry Algerian duly winning a third successive 1,500m title, finishing with a scorching 51.2-second last lap. Also in there was Niall Bruton, the first Irish man to make a World 1,500m final, still in touch approaching the bell before finishing 11th.

In immediate succession to that sort of dominance came Hicham El Guerrouj, the Moroccan winning four successive 1,500m titles, only it would be another 16 years after Gothenburg before Ciarán Ó Lionáird became the second Irish man to make that 12-runner final, finishing 10th in Daegu in 2011. No Irish man has come close in the 12 years since.

Further progress

Now the name Andrew Coscoran comes into that conversation and for good reason. While Jakob Ingebrigtsen dominates the event to the extent he’ll be thinking similar to Morceli — “Who will finish second? Who will finish third?” — Coscoran’s further progress this season has unquestionably made only a third final appearance a possibility.

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“We’d be lying if we didn’t say that’s the goal,” says Feidhlim Kelly, who has been coaching Coscoran since 2018, carefully pulling back his once-promising junior career from the danger of extinction.

“It’s the old cliche, get through the heats first, then run the semi-final as if it’s the final. If you make the final, after two days’ rest, you just never know. He’s run 3:30, a lot of other guys have too, but Andrew is the type of character where nothing would surprise me in a final. If he stays relaxed, doesn’t panic, enjoys it as well.”

Indeed Coscoran’s 3:30-clocking this summer — 3:30.42 — is significant on several fronts. Back in February, he ran 3:33.49 indoors, finally taking down Ray Flynn’s national record of 3:33.5, clocked during the Dream Mile in Oslo back in July 1982.

Then in Nice in June, he improved that again with the first Irish sub-3:33, with a winning time of 3:32.68, before running that 3:30.42 a month later in Chorzow, Poland (finishing fourth behind Ingebrigtsen’s new European record of 3:27.14).

After running another 3:32.42 in London, Coscoran has now run inside Flynn’s old record four times this season, when for years few Irish men could run even close.

Gradual process

For Kelly, who as coach at the Dublin Track Club has the unique distinction of also boasting Irish record holders in the 800m, Mark English running 1:44.71 in 2021, and in the 5,000m, Brian Fay running a brilliant 13:01.40 in July, it all comes down to natural progression.

Coscoran turned 26 last month, Kelly admitting the Balbriggan native wasn’t always aware that talent is nothing without hard work: “It’s kind of like the full professionalisation of the athlete if that’s the right word. Trying to get them to buy completely into being that professional athlete.

“That’s been a gradual process, possibly at the start was more about me pushing him, maybe me wanting him to succeed, more than he did. That has transitioned now to where he’s directing the traffic, which is more the way it should be, as an elite athlete.

“And you can see in his physique now. Back then he was still a little soft, let’s say, now he’s properly chiseled. There were some junctures when people would say to me, ‘maybe he’s not disciplined enough’. But this only comes after years of training, so it’s been that constant evolution, of fine-tuning and refining the training.”

His first breakthrough came indoors in January 2020, when he ran a 3:56.85 mile, before making the Tokyo Olympics, only things have moved on in other ways too: already this year, 11 men have run sub-3:30, more than in any previous year, including the top eight in the Oslo Diamond League alone.

Coscoran’s 3:30.42 ranks him 13th fastest going into the World Championships which get under way in Budapest on Saturday — those 1,500m heats set for day one.

“I don’t get too caught up on times anymore, the advantage or not of the new spikes, because it’s just a whole different era,” says Kelly. “There’s also been a psychological shift, if you look at the Ingebrigtsen races now, there’s no tea break. Every race is on from the gun, and everyone is racing more aggressively. So the 3:30 of today is not the 3:30 of old.

Routine and structure

“It’s hard to even quantify a time anymore, it’s better to look at first, second, third, fourth place. That’s the goal, how to win the race or finish further up.

“The Ingebrigtsens also went back to that old school of high mileage, because you are kidding yourself if you’re not doing it. That routine, structure, Andrew’s been building that running volume up to 100 miles a week, and that’s really taken four years to get to.

“So it’s nothing fancy, no secret code. Just four, five years now of uninterrupted training. And learning on the job as well, becoming a better racer by running good races.”

In between racing, Kelly’s athletes have been based at Hoyos del Espino, two hours west of Madrid, suitably situated at about 1,500m above sea level. For the first time, Ireland has full representation in the event; Coscoran is joined by the young Nick Griggs and Luke McCann, likewise Ciara Mageean by the young Sophie O’Sullivan and Sarah Healy.

“At the end of the day, the public understands medals,” says Kelly. “And Sonia O’Sullivan, Eamonn Coghlan, they’ve all done that. But first, you have to run fast. Look at all the championships, all the fastest runners usually win the medals. If you’re not fast enough, you’re not in the game.”