Coverage of the Irish Indoor Athletic Championships...

The Irish Indoor Athletic Championships were held last weekend at the new facility in Athlone. Over the two days, some great times were posted on the new indoor track.

In the womens 1500m, European Cross Country Champion Fionnuala Britton put in a great burst of speed 300m from the end of the race to win comfortably in a time of 4:13.96, a new personal best time and almost eight seconds faster than her previous best of 4:21.85. It was also under the qualifying time for the European Indoor Championships in Sweden (4:15) although she is likely to concentrate on the 3000m there.


In the womens 3000m, Lizzie Lee from Leevale AC in Cork took an early lead and held it to the end to win a national title...



In the mens 1500m, John Coghlan who is coached by his father Eamonn took the title...

There is a 55 minute programme now available from the RTE Player service HERE

Athletics Ireland has a gallery of photos HERE

The full results can be seen HERE

Millrose games and the Wanamaker mile...

An event called the Millrose Games is being held in a 5,000-seat armory in Upper Manhattan, New York on Saturday. Back in the 1980's, the Millrose Games were the centre of indoor track and field in the United States and Eamonn Coghlan was one it's biggest stars. He won the famous Wanamaker Mile seven times and earned himself the title Chairman of the Boards as a result.

Eamonn Coghlan will be there again on Saturday to watch his son John in action after he ran a sub-four-minute mile indoors for the first time in Boston last month. John will be running anchor for Dublin City University in the distance medley relay at 7:40pm (Sunday morning 00:40 am Irish Time).

The main event, the Wanamaker Mile starts at 9:49 pm (Sunday 02:49am Irish Time). The Irish interest in this is David McCarthy from Waterford who won an indoor mile recently in 3:55. Video in an earlier post.

If you are interested in watching the games, I'll have the link up live here on the blog. Coverage of the Millrose games start at 9pm Irish Time on Saturday evening and I'll put the video link up then.

The complete list of events can be seen HERE. Remember that those times are for the USA. Add five hours for the Irish time.

David McCarthy and John Coghlan go sub 4 in the US

David McCarthy from Waterford won a mile race in the US this evening with a time of 3:55.75. Also running sub 4 was John Coghlan from Dublin. (McCarthy is in black and white, Coghlan is in blue)


Watch more videos on Flotrack

2012 BU Terrier Invitational - 28th Jan - Boston University - Boston, MA                
 Men 1 Mile Run
===============================================================
    Name                    Year Team                    Finals
===============================================================
Section  1                                                    
  1 McCarthy, David              Providence             3:55.75
  2 Ritchie, Tim                 Baa                    3:58.49
  3 Coghlan, John                Unattached             3:59.32
  4 Gonzalez, Christian          Nj-Ny Track Club       3:59.98
  5 Matthews, Julian             Providence             4:02.08
  6 Bleday, John                 Dartmouth              4:04.02
  7 Jamieson, Carlos             Cptc New Balance       4:04.05
  8 Paulson, Matt                Boston U.              4:06.05

Post race interview with David McCarthy HERE
...and John Coghlan HERE

Postscript.......Ian O'Riordan has an interesting piece in the Irish Times about how Eamonn and John Coghlan are the first Irish father-son combination to crack the 4 minute mile barrier, and become the second of only two in the world to do so. Eamonn Coghlan first broke four minutes when he was 22, John Coghlan is now 23 so he still has his whole athletics career ahead of him.

Amazingly, Eamonn Coghlan has run 83 sub-four minute miles, including a 3:49.78 – the second fastest indoors of all time – plus the only sub-four ever by an over 40-year-old.

The full article is HERE