Record holder Coman fails fitness battle to reach Europeans

TOMAS COMAN, the national indoor 400m record holder, has abandoned hopes of competing in next month's European championships in Munich.

He has been battling with an Achilles tendon injury since the European indoor championships in Vienna where he broke the national indoor record twice and, despite intensive treatment, has not recovered.

He pulled out of the BUPA Ireland Cork City Sports on Saturday and will not be defending his title at the national senior championships in Morton Stadium over the coming weekend.

It was at the corresponding meet last year that he achieved the qualifying standard for the world championships in Edmonton and he had been hoping to put the finishing touches to his European preparations there on Sunday.

With four runners qualified at 400m the prospects of having an Irish 4 x 400m relay team in the final for the first time ever loomed large. Paul

McKee who broke Derek O'Connor's 16-year-old outdoor record (45.73) with a 45.62 run in Tartu last month leads the qualifiers followed by Rob Daly, who ran 46.24 in Ekerhuleni in April, Coman who ran 46.34 in Vienna where he broke the national indoor record twice in two days, and Dave McCarthy who broke the old indoor record less than two weeks earlier in Birmingham where he won the British title in 46.66 secs.

The old record was set by the late Fanahan McSweeney at 47 secs in Vienna 32 years earlier. Tomas Coman had picked up the Achilles tendon injury to his left heel before the Euro indoor championships. He was forced to pull out of the final of the national indoor championships in Nenagh as a result. The selectors wisely picked him for the indoor championships where he turned in some splendid performances despite his problem.

But since then he has been unable to train and when he returned from the Europa Cup in Tallinn he could only train lightly on grass.

"It is a long standing problem and has been difficult to treat," Coach Drew Harrison said. "It is caused by a multi-factorial problem. You must identify the cause and then rectify it.

"He has missed a fair amount of training since coming back from the European indoor championships and really the decision rests with him."

The Templemore man, 22, is one 24 athletes who have so far qualified for the European championships.

James Nolan, who qualified at 1,500m, had a disappointing run over 800m at The Mardyke on Saturday and will be anxious to rediscover his form.

He, too, has had an injury problem but his coach, Brendan Hackett, is happy with his progress and confident he will be ready for the Europeans which get under way four weeks from today.

Irishman John McDonnell has been appointed middle distance coach to the American team for next year's world championships in Paris.

The Sligo man is one of the most successful track coaches in the history of US collegiate athletics.

In all he has won 36 NCAA national team championships, 69 league championships, 28 consecutive cross country conference championships and coached 22 Olympians. Among the Irish athletes he coached was the double world indoor champion, Frank O'Mara. He took over the University of Arkansas men's cross country team in 1972 and the entire track programme in 1978.