He dared to dream

Former Athletics Co Board chairman Brendan Meade reflects on the career of young athlete Andrew Coscoran who made it to the big stage

Star of the Sea athlete Andrew Coscoran will be going to the Olympic Games in Tokyo. Club stalwart and former Meath Athletics Co Board chairman BRENDAN MEADE looks back on the career of the young athlete who achieved a dream and became an Olympian overcoming many challenges along the way

In 2001 a young boy aged five tagged along with his sister to join Star of the Sea AC and take up running. Within a year or so he had found soccer and all through his national school days he played with the local club while coached by his dad.

On starting secondary school in St. Mary’s, Drogheda he happened to find running again and in 2010 he re-joined Star of the Sea AC. His return to running started out in the Meath Track & Field Championships where as an u-15 he won gold in the 200m, bronze in the 800m and silver in the 1500m where he was beaten by Brian McGrath (Bohermeen AC) with whom he would have a friendly rivalry over the next year or so.

He went on to finish second to Jack Reid at the Leinster Track & Field Championship in the 1,500m and on the 24th July 2010 he won his first All-Ireland gold medal in the blue riband event of middle distance running namely the 1,500m in a time of 4.28.58 from Cillian O’Donovan (Iveragh AC) who was only 0.2 seconds behind him. And so started his love affair with middle distance running.

After winning the u-15 race in the 2010 Star of the Sea cross-country meeting he then ventured to the Meath Cross Country Championships where sometimes he won and other times was beaten by fellow clubman Rob Tully.

Then in the Leinster Cross Country a more serious rivalry developed between him and class mate Aaron Hanlon (Dunleer AC) in St. Mary’s, Drogheda. This time he prevailed but at other times Andrew had to lick his wounds. Following that u-16 cross-country title win he did the double by taking the u-15 title in Adamstown.

He went to his first All-Ireland cross-country held in Gransha Park, Derry in conditions that were akin to the Antarctic with snow and freezing weather where he finished fourth in the u-16 race, a placing that gave him his first Irish vest as part of the Celtic International u-17 team.

Due to the persistent bad weather in November/December 2010 the uneven age All-Ireland were held over until January 2011 and in Charlemont Estate, Tullamore Andrew won his first All-Ireland cross country title.

Throughout 2011 his times continued to improve - lowering his 1,500m time to 4.09 and then down to 4.02 in 2013 - as well as continuing to win 1,500m titles. In 2013 following his win in the boys u-18 All Ireland 3,000m he gets his second Irish vest representing Ireland at the Celtic International Track & Field meeting in Colywn Bay, Wales where he set a new Celtic Games record of 8.32.49 knocking eight seconds off the previous record set in 2009. I think that record still stands.

With the track season finished for 2013 concentration switched once again to the cross country and possible qualification for the European Junior Cross Country taking place in Belgrade. As usual once the end of August came training would resume on Saturdays with hill work in Ardgillan Park between Balbriggan and Skerries.

The group included Rob Tully, who would compete at the 2014 World Junior Track & Field Championships in Oregon, USA, Cormac Costello, Ciaran McGinley all Gormanston College students as well as Ciara Rooney (Navan AC) and would later expand to include local runners from Balbriggan and other Meath clubs. Andrew dutifully qualified for the Irish team by finishing third in the All Ireland Junior Cross Country and in Belgrade he continued to show his pedigree by finishing in 41st place and second Irish runner across the line.

In 2014 he renews his rivalry with class mate Aaron Hanlon in the All-Ireland Schools Cross Country which Andrew wins by a convincing margin. Then in the All-Ireland Indoors he lowers his 1,500m time to 3:57.04. He follows that up by winning the All-Ireland School’s 1,500m in Tullamore. He then wins the All-Ireland junior 1,500m in Cork with a time of 3:53.84 with Aaron Hanlon second just less than one second behind him which again is a new PB.

An athletic season is not without its highs and lows and Autumn 2014 was no different. Andrew suffered a throat infection which necessitated a course of antibiotics and missing a couple of weeks training as he tried to make the team for the European juniors cross country again. The All-Ireland’s in Dundalk did not go to plan as when the leaders stepped up the pace half way through the race Andrew was unable to go with them and ended up pulling out of the race.

Leading up to the 2015 Schools All-Ireland Cross Country taking place in Clongowes Wood College he again missed a period of training and could only finish in sixth place. However the track season was now upon him with the European Junior Championships Track & Field taking place in Sweden in July.

He retained his 1,500m Schools All-Ireland title in early June and also got the A standard of 3:47.04 for the 1,500m. He went to that championship ranked in 15th place. He made it to the final leaving in his wake some very fancied athletes and finishes eighth in the final.

With the summer over he gets the call to an athletics scholarship in the USA with Florida State. He heads over and his time in Florida does not go well. Andrew is specialist 1,500m runner who could do a very decent 800m or 5000m and could add a good 6k cross country to that mix. Over there he was thrown in at the deep end of their 10k cross country racing and to be honest it nearly broke him.

As his coach I was very disappointed in how they raced him but then the collegiate system in America can churn runners up and spit them out as they know there are plenty more athletes looking for the opportunity to get to the USA. After a disastrous cross country season the track went a little better but summer came around and home Andrew came. In 2017 an athletic scholarship in DCU with Enda Fitzpatrick’s cohort of students set him on the right track again.

With the 2017 European u-23 Track & Field Championships taking place in Bydgoszcz, Poland his training was given a new focus in trying to get the A standard as set by Athletics Ireland of 3:42.50. He went to a Track & Field meet in Flanders, Belgium towards the end of May where he smashes that time when running 3:41.20 setting a new PB in the process.

2018 was a year beset by niggles with tight muscles. Towards the end of the year Feidhlim Kelly asked him to join his group of middle distance athletes that trained together under the umbrella of the Dublin Track Club. With Feidhlim coaching him and adhering to a strict stretching and warmup regime Andrew overcame his muscle tightness problems and training started to go well again. Then on the 20th July 2019 in Heusden, Netherlands he set a new PB of 3:40.79 for 1,500m.

He was now one of the favourites for the National senior 1500m title taking place on 27th July. Having easily qualified for the final he was sensationally disqualified for alleged pushing on the back straight after finishing second.

However the following day he received his first senior international vest when asked to be a member of the team for the European Team Championships taking place in Norway the following week.

The autumn of 2019 was spent preparing for the indoor track season and the Olympics scheduled for Summer 2020. To those ends he went to race the 2020 indoor season in America where he set a new PB of 3:37.98 for the 1500m in Boston while he also broke the four-minute mile twice once in Boston and then in New York when competing in the Wannamaker Mile.

He came home and duly set a new championship best performance when winning the national 1,500m title in the National Sports Arena, Abbottstown in a time of 3:41.36 beating the old mark of 3:44.12 set by James Nolan in 2006.

Little then did we know then about Covid and the havoc it would cause. The Olympics would be cancelled and there was virtually no racing until the National Championships at the end of August 2020 where Andrew finished 3rd. Again it was head down and training with a view to hopefully racing again in the spring or early summer.

Racing on the European 2021 indoor circuit in February Andrew had a series of great times culminating with a 3:37.20 in Lieven, France a new PB and cementing his place on the Irish team for the European indoors the following month in Torun, Poland. With a seventh place finish from the European Indoors his sights were now firmly set on Olympic qualification. He either had to run a 3:35 flat or qualify based on his World Ranking place.

On the 13th June in Sollentuna, Sweden he came tantalising close to the magical 3:35.00 when he ran a 3:35.66. While not getting the automatic qualifying time the points he gained from this time and his other 3:36.09 time kept his position in the world rankings.

The National 1,500m championships were held on the weekend of the 25th-27th June and Andrew justified his favourite tag in winning his first senior outdoor 1,500m title. He had a race in Lucerne on Tuesday 29th June which was coincidentally was the last day for Olympic qualification. Unfortunately Lucerne was rained out and did not give him a chance of getting the automatic time for the Olympics. Now the wait began.

Within twenty four hours it was clear from results of races on the World Athletics website that no athlete had jumped above Andrew in the race to Tokyo but all clubs were asked by Athletics Ireland to refrain from making comments on social media about prospective members of the Olympic Team until the Olympic Federation of Ireland officially announced the team. It was a long wait but this week Andrew was named on the Olympic team

The club has had Colin Costello and Kourosh Foroughi compete at European Youth Olympic level, Barry Delany at the Winter Olympics as a member of Irish bobsleigh team and now we have Andrew Coscoran competing at the Tokyo Summer Olympics. This is the greatest achievement that any athlete might wish for as they set out on their athletic journey.

It is a great honour for any athlete to represent their club, local area and country at an Olympic Games and we in Star of the Sea AC are so proud of him for what he has achieved.

For me it has been a privilege to have coached Andrew and to have brought him a certain distance on his journey. However that would not have been possible without what I learned from Rob Denmead (Tullamore Harriers) with regards middle distance running when he was Colin Costello’s coach. Well done to Feidhlim Kelly for taking Andrew on the next stage of the journey and I wish both of them every success in the future.

To me the one sad fact is that if Andrew was a soccer player, a golfer or a tennis player at the same ranking in those sports as he is in athletics he would have no monetary worries and to this end I would like to thank Meath Athletics, Star of the Sea AC along with Balbriggan Road Runners and Balbriggan AC for the support given to Andrew in his quest for Olympic qualification.

Meath Athletics were quite visionary in that a number of years back they set up a fund for emerging talent and high performance athletes in order that those athletes could be helped to fulfil their potential on the athletic journey that lay ahead of them.

Without dedication, perseverance, hard work and no little ability this achievement would not be possible – so well done to Andrew for sticking in there on the dark days when injuries, niggles and the constant demand of training might break a lesser person. Without the backup of a supporting family this also is not possible so congratulations to Gary and Paula, Kate, Harry, Peter and his grandparents on having an Olympian in their family.

I wonder whether that seed or dream was planted in his head as a four year old by either grandad Paddy or grandad John after Sonia O’ Sullivan’s medal at the Sydney Olympics as he ran around the back garden in the same way that I can remember my grandad talking about Ronnie Delany after the 1956 Olympics.

The team flies out 21st July to Japan. Due to Covid the team will be staying in their training camp at Fukuroi which is about three hours from Toyko. Athletes then go to the Olympic village 48 hours before their race and have to leave it 48 hours after their race. The heats of the 1,500m take place on 3rd August between 1.00am and 4.30am Tuesday morning Irish time with the semi-finals on the Thursday 5th between 11.00am and 1.45pm Irish time.

The dream is over it is now a reality. Best of luck Andrew all in East Meath and Balbriggan are rooting for you.