Andrew Coscoran earned himself the biggest payday of his career by winning $50,000 as the overall runner-up in the men’s long distance events, after finishing third in the 5,000m at the second Grand Slam Track meeting in Florida.
The Dublin runner had won the 3,000m on Friday night, earning him 12 points, and another win would have earned him the top prize of $100,000, but Coscoran had to settle for third place in the 5,000m, earning him six points, the race won by Grant Fisher from the US in 13:40.32, enough to give him the top prize.
Fisher had finished a close second to Coscoran in the 3,000m, and the two-time Olympic medal winner took the top prize with his combined performances. Cooper Teare, also from the US, finished second in 13:46.25, Coscoran third in 13:46.30.
With Fisher finishing on 20 points, Coscoran finished on 18, safe in the runner-up prize. Third place gets $30,000 per slam, and fourth gets $25,000 per slam.
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Coscoran’s winning time in the 3,000m was 8:17.56, including a last 200m of 25.78 that saw him move from fourth to first.
With a total prize purse of $12.6 million, for year one Grand Slam Track is focussing on six performance categories, each combining two events, from short sprints to long distance.
This makes for just 96 athletes per meeting, the 48 contracted “racers” and 48 “challengers”, with eight athletes in each race, then one overall winner per category based on cumulative points.
Coscoran was one of the challengers on what proved to be a very rewarding weekend, with two more Grand Slam meetings to come.
