Ireland’s Andrew Coscoran won his way into the 1,500 metres final at the World Championships on another hot night inside the National Stadium in Tokyo, nailing one of the top-six qualifying places with a tactically astute performance to finish fifth.
With the last three World 1,500m champions to contend with, Coscoran needed to execute the perfect race, and he did exactly that, the 29-year-old from Dublin right in contention down the homestretch to come through for fifth, clocking 3:35.65.
“I’ve been trying to make a world final for about five years now, I’ve put a lot of work in and made some mistakes along the way trying to make it, but everything clicked today. I’m absolutely chuffed,” Coscoran said.
“I was seventh for a lot of the race, so in touching distance of qualification for the whole thing ... I was just looking for a gap then. Down that last 100 metres I felt like I had a bit more to give. I think I can run well in the final, it’s new territory for me but I’ll go in there and give it socks.”
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Coscoran’s semi-final included former champions Josh Kerr and Jake Wightman of Britain, and 2019 champion Timothy Cheruiyot from Kenya.
It was Kerr that set most of the pace, with 800m passed in a steady 2:00, before the last lap burn up.
Taking the victory was rising Dutch star Niels Laros, just ahead of Kerr, but Coscoran was suitably pleased with his effort, having missed out on the final of the Olympic 1,500m final in this same stadium four years ago.
The final is set for Wednesday at 2.20pm Irish time, with Coscoran the first Irish athlete to make the men’s 1,500m final since Ciarán O’Lionaird in 2011.
Sarah Lavin went into her semi-final of the 100m hurdles knowing perfectly well the challenge that lay ahead, not just the 10 hurdles lined up in front of her.
With only the top two progressing to the final, plus the two-fastest non-qualifiers across the three semi-finals, Lavin did produce one of her best runs this season, nailing fourth in 12.86 seconds.
There was a false start by Finland’s Lotta Harala in lane eight, meaning one less athlete for Lavin to beat. The semi-final won by Grace Stark from the US, the second fastest in the world this year, in 12.37 seconds.
That fourth place and 12.86 clocking at least gave Lavin a brief hope, with two semi-finals still to run, but that hope didn’t last long as Pia Skrzyszowska from Poland ran 12.53 to finish third in the next semi-final, and with that knocked Lavin out of the non-fastest qualifying spot.
Lavin would have needed to improve on her Irish record of 12.62 to have had any chance to progress, another indication of this event has moved on in recent years. All three semi-finals were won in a sub-12.5 seconds, Toni Amusan from Nigeria winning the second semi-final in 12.36. Lavin ended up ranked 13th overall.
Competing in her first senior global final, Nicola Tuthill ended up 11th in the women’s hammer after the first three throws, before the top eight went on to compete in three more rounds to decide the medals.
Tuthill was unable to surpass the 70m mark on this occasion, throwing a best of 69.49m with her first effort, but making the final already satisfied the hopes of the 21-year-old from Bandon.
Earlier in the morning in Tokyo, Peter Lynch cut through the marathon field to finish 24th, the 27-year-old from Kilkenny running 2:14:12 in his World Championship debut.
Lynch went through the first 10km in 61st position and, was 55th at the halfway (1:07:03). He then began to move up through the field in the second half, moving up to 40th through 30km and continued to pick off other athletes as the finish line drew near.
“It was tough. but that’s how we knew it was going to be,” said Lynch. “Today was all about running my own race and getting the best out of myself. I wanted to beat as many bodies as possible.
“I had a time in mind, around 2:14, with the temperature and having seen how the women’s race went yesterday. That was the aim. Alistair [Cragg, coach] told me not to be worried if I was well back at the start, lads will blow up left, right and centre. I held myself together really well.”
There was an epic battle for gold as Tanzania’s Alphonce Felix Simbu ran down Germany’s Amanal Petros in the home straight, winning by .03 of a second, in 2:09:48 – closer than the men’s 100m final the night before.
There was disappointment for Hiko Tonosa, among the quarter of the race starters unable to finish, the high humidity eventually getting the better of him as he dropped just after the 35k mark.
