Sub-Four Minute Mile for John Coghlan

John Coghlan is Ireland’s latest sub-4 minute miler after running 3:59.3 to finish third at the Terriers Invitational indoor meet in Boston. He is the 40th Irish athlete to join this exclusive club; the first was Ronnie Delany at Santry in 1958. Last summer,  John ran 4:00.79 for ninth place in the Morton Mile at Santry; finishing third that day in 3:57.99 was Ciaran O Lionaird.
John and dad Eamonn are the first father/son combination to run under the four-minute barrier. Coghlan senior ran 3:49.77 indoors in 1983 – then a world record.  He also became the first – and so far only – man over 40 to run under the four-minute barrier for the mile.
Winning the race in a personal best time of 3:55.75 was West Waterford’s David McCarthy who is at college in Providence, Rhode Island.  That moves him up to fifth place on the Irish indoor mile list.  McCarthy’s previous best of 3:35.75 had also come indoors in Boston in 2009.  The Waterford man is clearly back in top form – a week earlier,  he won the  3,000m at the Sheatock Invitational in Boston in  7:56.76  – a meet record.
John Coghlan is in the USA with a DCU team that will run the Collegiate  Relay at the Millrose Games next weekend.  
*Siobhan Eviston opened her indoor season with an impressive 800m win  at Sunday’s  London Games in Lee Valley.  In a  slow race, Eviston led from the gun to win in  2:09.30.   In the 60m, Paul Hession ran 6.96. Further afield, at the high jump meet in Brno, Czech Republic, Helen Buckley cleared 1.60m. 
* At the Classic Meet in Vienna,  Leevale’s Derval O’Rourke finished 2nd in the 60m hurdles  in 8.16. Winner was  Yvette Lewis of USA in 8.11.
Claire Bergin of DSD,  part of the  women’s Irish 4x400m team aiming for Olympic qualification was 2n in the 200m in a PB of 24.50  and 4th in  400m in  54.57, also a PB. s UCC’s Orla Drumm  ran 4:18.61 to finish 2nd in the 1500m, with  Sara Louise Treacy of Moyvalvey 5th in a PB of  4:21.91. 

No comments yet.

Leave a Reply