Career-best performance needed if Coscoran is to reach first 1500m final at World Championships

His season’s bests of 3:32.64 for 1500m and 13:11.05 for 5000m rank him outside the top-30 in both events, though Coscoran has demonstrated this season that he has the gears and race craft to make a final if he nails his best performance

Andrew Coscoran reached the World Championship semi-finals in 2022 and 2023. Pic: Sportsfile

No athlete wants to go into a championship with a sub-par final race, but for Andrew Coscoran, the eyes were on a much bigger prize as he prepared for the Brussels Diamond League last month, where he came home 13th in the 1500m in a modest 3:35.76.

Coscoran had kept the pedal pressed hard in training on the build-up, aware that he needed a hard block of work in his legs to be at his best next week for the World Championships. “It’s a risk,” he says, speaking on a video call from Tokyo. “Sometimes it pays off and you can run quite well. The run there wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t what I’m capable of at the moment. I’ll definitely be a lot better over here.”