Career-best performance needed if Coscoran is to reach first 1500m final at World Championships
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.”
The 29-year-old is set for a busy week at the Japan National Stadium, preparing to double in the 1500m and 5000m. The extrinsic goal is obvious: “I’ve been over at this track before, I missed out on the final by a couple of spots. So this time around, let’s try to rectify that.” But that all spawns from an intrinsic process. “I just want to get the most out of myself. This whole season has been planned around peaking for the World Championships in the 1500m.”
The decision to double was made in March after Coscoran did the same at the World Indoors in China. “It shouldn’t impact on my 1500m performance running the 5K. Maybe I’ll be a little bit tired for the 5K. My main event is the 1500m, so it was a pretty easy decision.”
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. He will get his campaign under way in the 1500m heats on Sunday, with a potential semi-final on Monday and the final slated for Wednesday, while the 5000m begins next Friday.
The Balbriggan native broke the longstanding Irish mile record indoors, clocking 3:49.26 at the Millrose Games in New York, and also rewrote the national indoor 3000m record, clocking 7:30.75 in Boston. He went on to finish sixth over 3000m at both the European and World Indoors.
Outdoors, he unleashed a vicious kick to win a world-class 3000m at the Miami edition of Grand Slam Track, the startup league co-founded by Michael Johnson which ran into financial difficulties and cancelled its final meeting of the year in Los Angeles.
Coscoran is among the athletes who has yet to be paid the $50,000 in prize money he earned that weekend, but he’s confident it will come through. “It’s not an unusual thing in the world of athletics, it can take six months for prize money to come through,” he says. “I hope Grand Slam is there next year – I’d love to be a part of it if it does. We got really well taken care of. It was really good, really fun.”
These days, Coscoran can cover his expenses through his New Balance contract and his Sport Ireland funding, but he hoped the Miami prize money would be something he could put aside for a rainy day: “It would be considerable for me, it would make a big difference.”
His lightning last 100m in Miami showed the fruits of his labour this year, Coscoran putting a bigger emphasis on sprint mechanics and building speed and power, which he hopes will be on show in Tokyo. “I think it can be as good if not better than Miami.” At the Morton Games in July, he took victory in the mile in 3:51.12, and he showed his potential over 5000m when kicking past his former training partner at the Dublin Track Club, Brian Fay, to win the national title in August, doubling back later that day to finish second in the 1500m behind Cathal Doyle.
After the Olympics last year, Coscoran relocated to Manchester to train under coach Helen Clitheroe. What is different about his new setup? “Nothing massively, both the groups I’ve been in have the same philosophy: very aerobic, a lot of aerobic sessions. I’ve pushed on in 1500m sessions a little more – a bit more speed and speed endurance.”
This is his fifth straight year lining up at a major global championship, having reached the 1500m semi-final at the Tokyo and Paris Olympics and at the World Championships in 2022 and 2023. To go one better in Tokyo, he’ll need the best performance of his career. But he feels ready to produce it. “If I was to run my best race, that’s all I can do,” he says. “I just want to get the most out of myself and if that’s good enough, that’s good enough.”
