Coghlan aims to clear Gothenburg hurdle
The 32-year-old Dubliner, who made a dramatic comeback to win the 60m hurdles title at the Woodies DIY Irish indoor championships at the Odyssey Arena on Sunday, faded from the scene a couple of years ago when he lost what meagre funding he had and was cut from the carding scheme.
He was right up there among the world’s leading high hurdlers — in one year he had run 13.3 seconds no fewer than seven times — and he holds the honour of being the fastest 110m hurdler not to make an Olympic final.
That was only one of many disappointments in a career that was dominated by injury. Working out of the US where he based himself with coach Paul Doyle after graduating from Yale University, he was under constant financial pressure, but the straw that broke the camel’s back came when he was dropped totally from funding.
He came back to Ireland, wound down his athletics career, and concentrated on the other aspects of his life.
Knowing all too well that he had not fulfilled his potential as an athlete, he eventually approached his friend Sean Cahill. Cahill, another former high hurdles champion, made his debut in a major championship at the infamous 1993 world championships in Stuttgart where Sonia O’Sullivan became embroiled in some fierce battles with the suspect Chinese athletes.
“My friendship with Peter goes back a long way,” Sean Cahill said. “When he contacted me and asked me if I would coach him, he left me with no option but to help out.
“He is a serious talent and any of us who knew anything about the sport knew that he had not fulfilled that talent.
“When he was in the US I think he felt isolated from the scene back home. He had a very good coach in Paul Doyle but, from my own experience and I would travel over there a few times a year, they are lacking in back-up medical staff.
“Peter had a lot of injuries and I know it was difficult for him. He did not have the back-up athletes that he had back home and I think, at the end of the day, he just got very frustrated and you cannot compete when you are in that frame of mind.
“We sat down, discussed the situation and I put a plan before him. In fairness to him he has stuck to that plan rigidly, not deviating a fraction from it. And I think the real test of his character came in his very first race just over a week ago in Loughborough when he hit the very first hurdle and almost broke his neck.
“He could have walked away from it there and then, but he put it behind him, got on with the job and you saw what happened at the Odyssey Arena on Sunday.
“Our problem is the lack of an indoor facility where he can train in a warm atmosphere.
“I am not one to whinge, but you go to Santry for a training session and, if you are there for more than six minutes, you are in serious danger of pulling something it is so cold.
“We make the most of whatever opportunity presents itself.
“He competes in Gothenburg and then he will compete in Budapest on Saturday.
“I will travel there with him on Friday and we have the use of the track to train on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. We should get in some good sessions in a warm environment and I think that will take his comeback to another level.”
Meanwhile, Mary Cullen has been to Belgium for further treatment on the problematic foot injury which she sustained in the road race in Providence last November.
She is being treated by Gerard Hartmann who referred her to the doctor who specialises in foot injuries and treats Paula Radcliffe amongst others.
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