Cian McPhillips blew away the cobwebs and some world-class opposition when cruising to victory over 600 metres at the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix in Boston on Saturday.
In his first outing since finishing fourth over 800m at the World Championships in Tokyo last September, McPhillips moved down to the rarely raced distance and underlined his now clearly elite competitive status.
Sitting fourth at the bell in the three-lap race, McPhillips hit the front down the backstretch and never looked back, winning in 1:16.37 ahead of Donovan Brazier from the US, the former world 800m champion second in 1:17.20.
It moves McPhillips to number two on the Irish all-time 600m list behind Mark English, who lowered his own Irish record where he clocked 1:15.80 at the Sport Ireland National Indoor Arena in Abbotstown earlier this month.
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McPhillips will move back up the 800m at next weekend’s Millrose Games in New York, the 23-year-old from Longford no doubt out to impress there in his build-up to the World Indoor Championships in March.
Nick Griggs also produced a superb run in Boston, his first indoor race in over two years, taking a massive chunk off his own Irish under-23 record when clocking 7:32.79 to finish fourth.
Andrew Coscoran also ran very close to his best to nail second in 7:30.97, the win going to Australian teenager Cam Myers in a new national record of 7:27.57.
It marks another massive leap forward for Griggs, who turned 21 last month, the European under-23 cross-country champion previously running 7:36.59 outdoors in 2024. Brian Fay was 10th in 7:42.58.
Later in the same meeting, Hobbs Kessler from the US set a new world indoor record over the 2,000m, running 4:48.79 - before Josh Hoey also of the US took down the long-standing world 800m record, running 1:42.50 after being paced by his brother Jaxson.
English was also back in action in the Lyon Indoor meeting, finishing third over 800m in 1:46.63 – victory there going to Mohammed Gouaned from Algeria in 1:45.85. Last Sunday, English smashed his own Irish indoor 800m record, clocking 1:44.65 for victory at the Luxembourg Indoor Meeting.
