Cragg celebrates new Irish record

ALISTAIR CRAGG was yesterday basking in the glory of a new Irish record he set on Sunday when he smashed Mark Carroll’s national 10,000m mark with a 27:39.55 run at the Payton Jordan Cardinal Invitational meeting in Stanford University, California.

With the A standard set at 27:49.00, the performance qualifies Cragg for both the world championships and next year’s Olympic Games, joining European indoor 400m champion, David Gillick, and racewalkers Robert Heffernan, Colin Griffin and Olive Loughnane who have also achieved A standards in their respective events.

It was on the same track that Mark Carroll completed his hat trick of records back in 2000 when he set the new Irish record at 27:46.82, breaking the old mark which John Treacy set at 27:48.6 back in 1978. The Leevale man already held the records at 3,000m and 5,000m.