Ó Lionáird spoilt for choice in US
The European youth 1,500 metres bronze medallist and Irish youth 1,500m record holder from Cork gave a glimpse to watching university coaches that he could handle the pressure of top-flight collegiate competition after he placed second in the Junior Invitational Mile at the Reebok Boston Indoor Games on Saturday night.
Ó Lionáird completes his Leaving Cert this summer and is understood to have a variety of options ahead of him, with some of the top US college track programs keen to recruit the 17-year-old.
“I’ll decide this week where I want to go, but I’m heading to America for sure,” Ó Lionáird said after his race.
“I won’t say where until I’ve spoken to the coaches, but I’ve narrowed the list down to two and I’ll make my mind up when I get home.”
The Leevale athlete did nothing to dissuade his prospective coaches at the Reggie Lewis Centre.
He ran at the front of the pack in the early stages, with Scotland’s Kris Gauson on his shoulder, and left a number of regional and state champions in his wake as he and Californian Michael Coe made a break with three laps left.
The chasing pack included 2005 Foot Locker US Cross Country Champion AJ Acosta, from California, New York State runner of the year Brian Rhodes-Devey, whose 4 mins 13.19 seconds had been the fastest mile in the US, and Dan McManamon, who had eclipsed that by 0.02 seconds in the previous week.
Coe and Ó Lionáird increased their lead with each lap before the American gradually dropped his Irish rival to finish in 4:07.30, smashing the previous meet record of 4:13.61.
Ó Lionáird, watched at the trackside by Leevale coach Der O’Donovan, finished strongly in second with a time of 4:09.41, almost a full second ahead of Acosta (4:10.32)
Yet the teenager was still disappointed. “I’m not thrilled,” Ó Lionáird said. “I was trying to win and it was a good pace but I was getting up at 4am every morning since I got here (on Wednesday) and I haven’t got used to the time difference. But to run that time at this stage of the season is very good and there were some good runners out there.”
Whatever lies ahead for Ó Lionáird, he will have seen the benefits of a US college track scholarship to an Irish athlete on full view at the Boston meet, where Alistair Cragg continued his return to form following a poor cross country performance in Belfast at the start of the month.
Following a mile personal best of 3:55 in Fayetteville last weekend, Cragg showed he is on a definite upward curve when he took third place behind Australia’s Craig Mottram and Sileshi Sihine of Ethiopia in the men’s two-mile race.
Of the other Irish athletes on show in Boston, Sinead Delahunty-Evans, who lives in the city, fought a losing battle with a stomach bug as she finished 10th in the women’s mile (4:39.26), won by the Marcus O’Sullivan-coached world indoor silver medallist Carmen Douma-Hussar of Canada in 4:29.52.
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