The exact influence of advanced track design and shoe technology may be difficult to gauge but Andrew Coscoran contributed to another record-breaking spree for Irish athletes this weekend, opening his Olympic season in fine form.
Purposely designed and built to optimise indoor racing, the Boston University track delivered across a range of events, Coscoran moving up to 5,000m and improving the Irish record by over four seconds, finishing seventh in 13:12.56 at the annual Terrier Classic meeting.
It added to his Irish mile and 1,500m marks set last year, and a 56-second improvement on his previous 5,000m best. It bettered the previous indoor mark of 13:16.77 set in 2022 by Dublin Track Club training partner Brian Fay, also coached by Feidhlim Kelly; Fay was also in the Boston field and finished 10th in 13:17.21, his outdoor record of 13:01.40 set last summer.
This rising standard of indoor times was again reflected when Adrian Wildschutt from South Africa took the win in 12:56.76, with 21-year-old Nico Young from the US setting an American NCAA record of 12:57.14.
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Coscoran will move on the Boston Indoor Games next Friday, the 27-year-old from north county Dublin clearly benefiting from some warm-weather training in Australia before Christmas, where he also made his debut over 10,000m, winning the Zatopek event in Melbourne in 27:56.34.
This weekend also saw five Irish runners run a sub four-minute mile on the same day, two for the first time, impacting on that all-time list in a way not seen in many years.
In the indoor mile in Boston, Paul Robinson turned back the clock somewhat on his career, running 3:57.11, his fastest mile in 10 years, while Thomas Moran from Meath broke four minutes for the first time, the 30-year-old from Meath running 3:58.07.
Also in Boston, Oisín Gallen improved his mile best to 3:58.28, while Shane Bracken clocked 3:58.58, both of those first running under four minutes last year.
Seán Donoghue, a junior at Villanova, ran 3:58.86 at the Ashenfelter Indoor track in Pennsylvania, his first sub-four, which brings to 57 the number of Irish sub four-minute milers in all, including 33 run indoors.
At the World Indoor Tour meeting in Astana, Eric Favors bettered his own Irish indoor shot put record with a best of 20.18m, adding two centimetres to his previous record set in February 2023.
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Sarah Lavin also started her indoor season in style running two successive lifetime bests in the 60m hurdles, clocking 7.93 in the semi-final, before improving that to 7.91 when finishing third in the final behind Tobi Amusan, the 2022 World Champion from Nigeria winning in 7.77.
Sophie O’Sullivan also had her first race of Olympic year, already qualified for the 1,500m for Paris, running 4:35.63 to finish third in the women’s mile at her home track at the University of Washington, while at the Sport Ireland Indoor Arena in Abbotstown, Tokyo Olympian Louise Shanahan won the 800, in 2:04.25, and fellow Olympian Cillin Greene winning the 400m in 47.58.
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