Andrew Coscoran narrowly missed the Irish indoor mile record when clocking 3:49.54 to finish fifth at the Millrose Games in New York on Sunday.
The Dubliner made a bold bid for glory in the Wanamaker Mile, taking the lead just after halfway, but faded on the final lap as Australia’s Cam Myers sprinted to victory in 3:47.57, with USA’s Yared Nuguse second in 3:48.31 and Hobbs Kessler third in 3:48.68.
Coscoran was targeting his Irish mile record of 3:49.26, which he ran at the same event last year, and that was very much on when he reached halfway at the front in 1:53.
But he paid for his exertions on the final lap, his time nonetheless the second quickest mile of his career. He enjoyed a fine start to the season the previous weekend in Boston, finishing second over 3000m in 7:30.97.
Cian McPhillips had also been due to race at the Millrose Games but withdrew from the 800m on Saturday due to a dental issue. He had been hugely impressive in Boston the previous weekend when powering to victory over 600m in 1:16.37.
The Longford native had hoped to secure the 800m qualifying standard of 1:45.90 for next month’s World Indoors in Poland but will now have to find another suitable race before the deadline on 8 March. Eric Favors was also in action in New York, throwing 19.64m to finish sixth in the shot put.
Elsewhere, Elizabeth Ndudi bounced back to form in superb fashion at the Razorback Invite in Arkansas on Saturday, the Dubliner breaking the national indoor women’s long jump record with a 6.63m leap, surpassing Kelly Proper’s mark from 2010 by one centimetre.
The 20-year-old, who claimed European U-20 long jump gold in 2023, is a student at the University of Illinois and this was the second-best jump of her career, having struggled with back issues following her Irish senior record of 6.68m in 2024.
It was just shy of the automatic qualifying standard for the World Indoors, but should see Ndudi offered a place via the dropdown performance list.
In Boston on Saturday night, Nick Griggs improved his Irish U-23 indoor 5000m record, clocking 13:19.90 to finish fourth at the Boston Terrier Classic and move third on the Irish all-time indoor list.
Brian Fay came home sixth in 13:21.68, James Gormley was seventh in 13:26.24, with Callum Morgan ninth in 13:31.47.
Darragh McElhinney produced an impressive last lap to take victory over 3,000m in 7:38.96, which was shy of the automatic standard for the World Indoors but under the Athletics Ireland B standard.
However, both Nick Griggs and Andrew Coscoran ran quicker the previous weekend and only two spots are allowed for each country at the event. Jack O’Leary came home eighth in 7:42.57.
In Glasgow on Saturday, Bori Akinola continued his fine form by clocking a PB of 6.59 to win over 60m, close to Israel Olatunde’s national record of 6.57 and below the automatic qualifying time for the World Indoors (6.59).
Ciara Neville clocked a PB of 7.28 to finish third in the women’s 60m, short of the World Indoor qualifying time (7.20) but within the current cutoff needed to secure a place via the top lists.
