Ultra-fine margins often define success or otherwise at the World Athletics Championships, and day three in Tokyo was no exception.
The three hundredths of a second separating the top two in the men’s marathon, the one centimetre Mondo Duplantis needed to improve his pole vault world record for the 14th time, and the .22 of a second between the top seven in Andrew Coscoran‘s semi-final of the 1,500 metres.
Critically for Coscoran, his cool head and sheer willpower saw him through in fifth place, earning his spot in Wednesday’s final showdown, just reward for the 29-year-old Dubliner after all his perseverance.
It was never going to be straightforward, not with the last three World 1,500m champions to contend with, and only the top six qualifying from each of the two semi-finals. Executing near perfect tactics, Coscoran still had to find some room kicking down the homestretch, dipping on the line to nail fifth in 3:35.65 – before briefly stumbling to the track in the process.
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Then the stadium screen confirmed the news he’d come to Tokyo for – his first outdoor global final, and the first Irish men’s 1,500m finalists since Ciarán O’Lionaird in 2011.
“I’ve been trying to make a world final for about five years now,” said Coscoran. “I’ve put a lot of work in and made some mistakes along the way trying to make it, but everything clicked today. I’m absolutely chuffed.
“I was seventh for a lot of the race, so in touching distance of qualification for the whole thing ... I was just looking for a gap then. I think I can run well in the final, it’s new territory for me but I’ll go in there and give it socks.”
Coscoran’s semi-final included former champions Josh Kerr and Jake Wightman of Britain, and 2019 champion Timothy Cheruiyot from Kenya. Taking the victory was rising Dutch star Niels Laros, in 3:35.50, just ahead of Kerr. The final is set for Wednesday at 2.20pm Irish time, and with Sarah Healy already in the women’s final, it’s the first time Ireland has representation in both showdowns.
The cut-throat nature of qualification was underlined when Olympic champion Cole Hocker from the US was disqualified in the second semi-final, the judges deeming his jostling down the homestretch to be illegal, which also resulted in two runners being added, making for a 14-man final.
Sarah Lavin went into her semi-final of the 100m hurdles knowing perfectly well the challenge that lay ahead, not just the 10 hurdles lined up in front of her. With only the top two progressing to the final, plus the two-fastest non-qualifiers across the three semi-finals, Lavin nailed fourth in 12.86 seconds.
The semi-final was won by Grace Stark from the US, the second fastest in the world this year, in 12.37 seconds. That at least gave Lavin a brief hope, with two semi-finals still to run, but that hope didn’t last long as Pia Skrzyszowska from Poland ran 12.53 to finish third in the next semi-final, and with that knocked Lavin out of the non-fastest qualifying spot.
All three semi-finals were won in a sub-12.5 seconds, Toni Amusan from Nigeria winning the second semi-final in 12.36. Lavin ended up ranked 13th overall.
“Coming up short, you just get sick of it,” Lavin said. “There so much faith, belief, love and time that’s invested in me, I’m forever indebted for that. I hope someday to deliver something that we can all be really proud of.”
Competing in her first senior global final, Nicola Tuthill ended up 11th in the women’s hammer, after the first three throws. She threw a best of 69.49m with her first effort, but making the final already satisfied the hopes of the 21-year-old from Bandon.
“I was really hoping to sneak out a PB, but 11th in the world is still amazing and I’m really proud of that,” she said. “I’m still really young, to make a final is a bonus. I’m a competitor so I always wanted to make it.
Earlier, Peter Lynch cut through the marathon field to finish 24th, the 27-year-old from Kilkenny running 2:14:12 in his World Championship debut.
“It was tough. but that’s how we knew it was going to be,” said Lynch. “Today was all about running my own race and getting the best out of myself. I wanted to beat as many bodies as possible.”
There was that epic battle for gold as Tanzania’s Alphonce Felix Simbu ran down Germany’s Amanal Petros in the home straight, winning by .03 of a second, in 2:09:48
There was no joy however for Hiko Tonosa, among the quarter of the race starters unable to finish, the high humidity eventually getting the better of him as he dropped just after the 35k mark.
