Andrew Coscoran: ‘I’ve got to places I didn’t think I would’
Sonia O’Sullivan and Andrew Coscoran launching the Irish Life Health ‘Runuary’ 2022 programme. ‘I think athletics is the best thing anyone could be part of,’ says Coscoran. ‘It’s a great community, a great lifestyle.’ Picture: David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile
A European final, Olympic semi-final, and a 1500m personal best that puts him in elite company on the Irish all-time list. For Andrew Coscoran, there’s no way to look back on this year as anything but a success — though he’s aiming even higher in 2022.
If there’s one thing the 25-year-old has learned, it’s that the best in the world are no different to him. In March, the Balbriggan native finished seventh in the European Indoor final, coming home three seconds behind Jakob Ingebrigtsen, the Norwegian who went on to win Olympic gold in Tokyo. In August, Coscoran finished 10th in the Olympic semi-final in 3:35.84 — just one second away from reaching the final.
And so, as he looks to a year rife with more championship opportunities, there’s a belief he now truly belongs at the top level. “I’ve got to places I didn’t think I would and it’s given me a bit of a platform, an opportunity to strive for higher,” he says.
“When you’re coming up as a kid, it looks like a huge gap between you and the top. Being there in the middle of it in the (Olympic) semi-finals, you just observe everyone and see that everyone is human at the end of the day, everyone does the same thing. They put their runners on and go for a run and get consistency in training. That’s how they get good.”
It’s been a steady rise, but like most athletes’ progression, it was far from linear.
Coscoran first took up athletics in his first year of secondary school, chiefly as a way to get a day off, but his talent quickly shone. Under the guidance of coach Brendan Meade at Star of the Sea AC, he won a rake of schools and national underage titles through his teenage years, finishing eighth in the European U20 1500m final in 2015.
After that he followed the path of so many Irish athletes by heading stateside, accepting a scholarship to Florida State University, the college that transformed Ciarán Ó Lionáird into a world 1500m finalist in 2011.
The same programme never fit Coscoran the same way, and his experience in Florida was soured after he suffered a vicious assault on a night out that left him with a broken jaw, a broken nose, damaged teeth, and a concussion. After returning home in 2016 he decided to stay, qualifying as a personal trainer and working in McDonald’s to make ends meet. The following year he had a breakthrough season on the track, clocking 3:41.20 for 1500m at the age of 20, which helped him earn a scholarship to DCU.
He missed most of 2018 with injury and, training mostly on his own, he was looking increasingly aimless before he met coach Feidhlim Kelly, who he says gave him “a kick up the hole”.
Coscoran made mistakes on his way up — plenty of them — but these days he recognises the value in that. “Making mistakes (in) training and learning from all these experiences is very important,” he says.
“Once you make a mistake in athletics, you learn from it and you get better and the product at the end when you get to senior level is a combination of making mistakes and learning.”
Coscoran began training with Kelly’s Dublin Track Club group near the end of 2018, and the following summer he lowered his 1500m best to 3:40.79. The big breakthrough came in 2020, with Coscoran clocking 3:37.98 indoors in Boston. Suddenly he was entering Olympic territory.
When the Games got kicked 12 months down the road, he just kept doing what he’d been doing: Running 80-90 miles a week, committing himself to full-time training, even with a shoestring level of support. He took a punt on his own talent, hoping it would pay off.
“Finances are all pushed towards athletics and that’s everything that I do,” he says. “Maybe I don’t live the lavish lifestyle, but I have enough to get by.”
Not that he’s in this game for the funding, as welcome as it was when it came along. What he gets from it is far more valuable.
“I think athletics is the best thing anyone could be part of,” he says. “It’s a great community, a great lifestyle. For kids coming through looking to make improvements, (the key is to) love the sport, get involved in it as much as you can, try to have a friends’ circle around you who love athletics or a system around you.”
At the Dublin Track Club, Coscoran has that, and his investment paid dividends over the summer when he became the ninth-fastest Irishman of all time, running 3:35.66 in Sweden. That significantly boosted his world ranking, which saw him secure Olympic qualification.
He went to Tokyo as a rank outsider and, in his heat, he was drawn alongside two-time Olympic medallist Nick Willis. Both Coscoran and Kelly figured the New Zealander would be a good man to follow, a wily racer who knows the quickest route to the finish. Coscoran did just that and came eighth, a fraction of a second behind Willis, to advance. In the semi-final he ran the second-fastest time of his career to finish 10th, which put him 20th overall — vastly outperforming his ranking.
He had hoped to finish 2021 with a medal at the European Cross Country Championships in Dublin, Coscoran running the anchor leg for the mixed 4 x 1500m relay. He was in third place when he took over and, to the chorus of a screaming home crowd, he quickly surged into second and began to hunt down the British team out front. But that proved a futile chase, and Coscoran’s typical finishing kick deserted him in the battle for minor medals, with Ireland winding up fourth.
Looking back, he knows he was caught between two stools on that leg: To risk losing a minor medal by going after gold or to sit in, surrender a shot at victory, and try to outkick his rivals for silver. He has no regrets about his choice. “We went for it, the entire team went for it,” he says.
“On the day it didn’t go well, but the fact that we were fielding such a strong team in the mixed relay was good and it bodes well for the future. The fact we were fourth and we’re disappointed is a good thing.”
The day itself proved a memorable one for the crowd of almost 8,000, with more than 500 athletes walking away stunned by an atmosphere that was unrivalled in 26 past editions.
“It was class,” says Coscoran. “All the Irish, including myself, had never been more inspired to compete. Everyone was on full steam.”
The festive season hasn’t seen him back off training in recent weeks, with so many big opportunities ahead in the new year. In late January Coscoran will fly to New York to race some of the world’s best at the Millrose Games, and he’s also eyeing up races in Birmingham and France on the path to the World Indoors in Belfast in March. With the help of agent Nic Bideau and coming off the year he’s had, he’ll be able to secure a spot at many of the top meets on the circuit.
But what drives him most are championships, and he’ll have no shortage next summer: The World Championships in Oregon; the Europeans in Munich; and the World University Games in Chengdu, China.
“I’ll be aiming for big performances,” he says. “Last year proved that we can be competitive up the top, and with another year of training behind me, another year of consistency and experience at a high level, we’re aiming for finals or maybe even a medal here or there. So yeah, full steam ahead.”
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