Bronze for Coscoran at European Finals

First major outdoor medal for Star of the Sea runner

Star of the Sea’s Andrew Coscoran has taken the first major outdoor medal of his career at the European Athletics Championships in Birmingham.

He came home in a storming finish to take bronze in the 1,500 metres final on the penultimate day of action at the European Athletics Championships at the Alexander Stadium.

Coscoran ran a brave race, finishing in a time of 3:36.24.

"Hard work eventually pays off," he told RTÉ Sport after the race. "You bide your time, you wait. I'm absolutely buzzing.

"It all just clicked on the day. My preparation was really good. I have to thank my team of pacers over the last while. I've been going through a bit of a tough time with things and all the lads have been out on the bikes with me, pacing me and really helping me.

"That's a product of a lot of work over the years. A lot of strength work, a lot of speed work. It eventually paid off. That's class.

"I've been working so hard for this for so long."

It was an enthralling contest all the way through with shocks aplenty, as Coscoran slipped back to seventh spot at one point in the final lap.

However he found an extra gear to record a podium finish alongside Stefan Nillessen who took the gold and Samuel Pihlstrom who won silver.

"A lot of the time it can open up," Coscoran said of his thoughts in the final 200m which saw him jump up the standings. "It's a split-second decision in the back straight whether to go up the inside or go around the outside and it opened up on the inside and I made a split-second decision to go. It's a risk. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't but today it did. I'm sitting here with a bronze medal."