A St Patrick’s Day toast to Irish runners Marcus O’Sullivan and Eamonn Coghlan
A week before St. Patrick’s Day I bought a pair of Saucony Kilkinney cross country racing flats. They are a garish Irish green and stand out like neon lights.
It reminded me of the Sports Illustrated magazine cover I have on my office wall that records the moment in 1994 when Eamonn Coghlan broke the tape at the finish line to become the first man over 40 to run a mile in less than four minutes.
Any day is a good day to toast the likes of Marcus O’Sullivan and Eamonn Coghlan with a glass of Jameson Irish Whiskey, but it’s even better when it’s St. Patrick’s Day.
Before I honor these two Irish running legends, let me first acknowledge another great Irish middle distance runner: Ron Delany.
Delany applied for legendary coach Jim “Jumbo” Elliott at Villanova, a Roman Catholic college in the St. Augustine tradition in Pennsylvania.
Delany became the seventh member of the 4-Minute-Mile Club, but still struggled to make the Irish team for the 1956 Olympics. Once she reached Melbourne, she qualified for the 1,500m final in which she Australian runner John Landy was the favourite.
Indeed, Landy set the pace while Delany trailed until around the bell when she ran a brilliant 53.8 split to set an Olympic record and brought home Ireland’s first gold medal in 24 years.
I think this is where the great Irish middle distance tradition really took off. I was 12 years old in 1956, Eamonn Coghlan was 4 years old, and Marcus O’Sullivan was born 5 years later.
Delany would win 4 straight AAU titles in the mile, another 4 Irish national titles, and 3 NCAA titles for Villanova and Jumbo Elliott.
Marcus O’Sullivan failed to get into any Irish university in his day, but he would quickly become a world-class running back for Jumbo Elliott at Villanova.
She would win 3 world indoor 1500m titles, compete for Ireland in 4 Olympic games over a 12 year period and run 101 sub 4 minute miles.
O’Sullivan was generally regarded as a better indoor than outdoor mile runner, winning the prestigious Wanamaker Mile at the Millrose Games at Madison Square Garden 5 times and setting the world record for the 1,500-meter indoor run in 1989 with a time of 3:35.4.
His personal best for the mile (3:50.96) was set indoors in 1987, and his personal best for the 1500 meters was 3:33.65 in 1992.
Following his competitive running career, O’Sullivan returned to Villanova and continues today as Villanova’s Head Cross-Country and Track Coach.
Guess who also ran for Jumbo Elliott at Villanova? Eamonn Coghlan won 4 NCAA titles at Villanova in the 1500 or the mile.
Coghlan ran his first mile under 4 minutes in 1975, setting a new Irish record in 3:53.2.
Like Frank Sinatra elsewhere, Eamonn Coghlan would become known as “The Chairman of the Boards” due to his success on the indoor floor. He won the Wanamaker Mile a record 7 times between 1977 and 1987 at the Millrose Games at Madison Square Garden.
Coghlan set the world record for the indoor mile with 3:50.6 in 1981 and again with 3:49.78 in 1983, a record that would stand for 14 years until Moroccan Hicham El Guerrouj ran 3:48.45 in 1997. Coghlan’s time in 1983 remains the same. the fastest mile ever run in the United States, and 1 of only 3 under 3:50 miles run on American soil.
Coghlan won an outdoor 5,000m world title in 1983, but it was absolutely devastating indoors. Coghlan was small compared to many of his competitors and perhaps his size gave him a small advantage when negotiating tight turns on indoor boards.
He also showed he could move up the distance, setting the 2,000m indoor record in 1987 in 4:54.07, which stood for 11 years until Ethiopia’s Haile Gebrselassie snatched it in 4:52.86 in 1998.
Coghlan also had a bit of Irish mischief in him when he won the 5,000m at the world outdoor championships in 1983. He looked at his Russian competitor ahead of him with glee as he reached the last turn before the finish, knowing he could outrun him. . , and then quickly brought the Russian to the ground as he flew past to win.
Eamonn Coghlan’s personal bests are mind blowing: 800m (1:47.0), 1500m (3:35.6), 1 mile (3:49.78), 3000m (7:36.6), 5000 m (13:19.11), 10,000 (28:09) and even the Marathon (2.25:13).
His two fourth-place finishes in the 1,500 meters at the 1976 Olympics and the 5,000 meters at the 1980 Olympics did nothing to enhance his fine achievements.
He more than made up for it in 1994 when he returned to the boards at the Albert J. Gordon Indoor Track at Harvard and became the first man over the age of 40 to break 4 minutes per mile, running an astonishing time of 3:58.15 indoors. .
Coghlan was 41 years old on the day he set the record. He ran more than a second faster than England’s Roger Bannister in 1954, when he became the first to break the 4 minute mile barrier on an outdoor track.
It was an impressive moment in athletics history. Here was a man in his late 40s who had set the world indoor record in 3:49.78 in his prime, ran 74 sub-4 minute miles, won 11 Irish titles and spent 30 years running competitively in the when it comes to their last lap as fans. he encouraged him.
Eamonn Coghlan, like so many times before, went flying around the final turn and ran onto the tape and, as they say, the rest is history.
“It was just like old times,” Coghlan said after the race. “Those last two laps brought it all back to me. My eardrums were aching from all the cheering, but my legs responded.”
He cited breaking the 4-minute mile indoor barrier at age 41 as his most pleasurable moment, even better than the world records and winning series of the Wanamaker Mile at the Millrose Games.
It is my great wish that the memories of these outstanding Irish middle distance runners outlive their records. Long live Ireland (Erin Go Bragh!) and the workings of the green.
Copyright © 2007 Ed Bagley