Andrew Coscoran smashes Irish Indoor 5000m record in Boston

Coscoran clocked 13:12.56 at the John Thomas Terrier Classic.

Andrew Coscoran started his Olympic year in fine style by smashing the Irish indoor 5000m record in Boston last night, the Balbriggan native clocking 13:12.56 at the John Thomas Terrier Classic. That carved four seconds off the previous mark, held by his training partner Brian Fay at 13:16.77.

Coscoran came home seventh in the race, won by Adrian Wildschutt in 12:56.76, while Fay – who still holds the Irish outdoor 5000m record at 13:01.40 – finished 10th in 13:17.21. The Irish duo recently completed a warm-weather training camp with other members of the Dublin Track Club in Florida, and they will remain in Boston for the next week before competing at the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix on February 4.

Coscoran spent much of the autumn training in Australia, where he smashed his 10,000m personal best, becoming the 12th Irishman to break 28 minutes by clocking 27:56.37. It capped a fine year for the 27-year-old, who broke the Irish 1500m records indoors (3:33.49) and outdoors (3:30.42) and also reached the world semi-final in Budapest.

Elsewhere, Paul Robinson turned in a strong showing in the mile in Boston, clocking 3:57.11, his fastest time since 2014 – the year he finished fourth in the European 1500m final. Fellow Irishmen Thomas Moran (3:58.07), Oisin Gallen (3:58.28) and Shane Bracken (3:58.58) also dipped under four.

Elsewhere, Eric Favors improved his own Irish indoor shot put record at the World Indoor Tour Gold meeting in Astana, Kazakhstan, this morning.

Favors threw 20.18m to finish third and add 2cm to his previous record that he had set in February last year.

Sarah Lavin made a flying start to her year by finishing third in the 60m hurdles in a PB of 7.91. The Limerick native had earlier clocked a PB of 7.93 in the semi-final. Lavin, who last year broke the Irish 100m hurdles record, is edging closer to Derval O’Rourke’s national indoor record of 7.84, which has stood since 2006. Sophie Becker finished third in the 400m in 53.19.