Cragg ponders next move after record run

NEW Irish 3000m indoor record holder Alistair Cragg was last night pondering his next move in this Olympic season following a remarkable run in the US at the weekend.

Cragg is three years into a University of Arkansas track scholarship under Mayo-born head coach John McDonnell and on Saturday ran 7:38.59 at the prestigious Tyson Foods Invitational meet in Fayetteville, Arkansas, to set his second Irish indoor track record.

Already the 5000m Irish indoor record holder, Johannesburg-born Cragg broke Frank O'Mara's national mark of 7.41.14, set in Seville on March 10, 1991 and regained his US collegiate men's record for the 3000m, having seen Michigan's Nick Miller run 7:44.90 in Boston last month.

The four-time NCAA champion who qualifies for Ireland through an Irish mother, finished second to Kenya's Boaz Cheboiywo (7:38.30).

Cragg's time also comfortably breaks the standard for the World Indoor Championships in Budapest on March 5-7 but he and coach McDonnell were last night discussing the merits of participating should he be invited to do so by Irish athletics officials.

"As yet I haven't been contacted at all by the Irish team ... and I don't expect it, to be honest. I don't know how they feel about it.

"I'm out here in the US and I'm tied with my education, in the middle of a semester right now. I'll talk to my coach about but I have to stick to my studies. I can't take a week out here and a week out there. I'd love to go, and if it can fit in and my professors agree, then why not. I've always wanted to go and run the world indoors.

"I'll only have three more weekends of racing indoors, including the national championships (NCAAs) and then the possibility of Budapest. But I really need to discuss that with coach Mac. And, of course, that's if Ireland really want me because I have had to turn them down in the past, because of schooling and injury, and I feel bad but it was out of my control."

An alternative for Cragg could be the World Cross Country Championships in Brussels on March 20-21 again, if he is selected.

"The world cross country has been discussed. It certainly fits in better for me but, again, I don't expect a call."