Coghlan ready to reap the rewards

How does if feel? Flat out over 10 high hurdles and 110 metres in 13.30 seconds. Three times improving the national record. Running the Weltklasse in Zurich. Highest ranked Irish competitor going to Seville. Losing the anonymity.

No-one imagined that sort of breakthrough in one summer, except for Peter Coghlan. This time last year, as a fresh graduate of Yale University with a personal best of 13.87 seconds, athletic folk quietly laughed when Coghlan suggested he put his career path on hold and concentrate full-time on the hurdles. Now he's ranked 18th in the world. Take out the Americans that won't be in Seville and he's 12th - in an event as technical and as competitive as they come.

One explanation lies with a new coach and a hurdling technique improved beyond all recognition, but Coghlan took all the chances and now he's ready to reap the rewards. So how does it feel?

"This is only the start, I know that much," he says. "I almost feel like it's overdue since my third year in college. Having run 13.87 the year before, I straight away felt that the only way was up. But there were two years where I just hit a plateau and went nowhere. Some of that was just being at Yale, yet I really felt I should have been running low 13 seconds by the end of college.

"What probably kept me going was the fact that my indoor times were actually getting a lot faster. They were more on the graph I wanted but outdoors it wasn't happening. And I don't think I was a 13.8 or 13.9 hurdler at the time. I didn't want to end it there because I knew I was better than that."

Instead, the 24-year-old Dubliner followed Susan Smith-Walsh down to Atlanta last November where he linked up with the American coach Loren Seagrave and his team of elite class sprinters. After just a few months of technique work and "learning to run all over again" the new Coghlan emerged. First up was national indoor record of 7.57 seconds for the 60 metre hurdles and then the World Indoor Championships in Japan where he ran badly but still ended up 11th overall.

He started the outdoor season in May with a personal best of 13.82 seconds and it hasn't stopped dropping since. His return home started with Ireland's group at the European Cup in Finland, and he won there in 13.47 - his first Irish record. The previous mark by TJ Kearns of 13.55 was set in the Atlanta Olympics and no-one else had come close. Then came the 13.35 in Crete last month, followed by the 13.30 when winning in Hechtal on August 7th.

"I can't imagine any of this happening if I didn't make the move to Atlanta. Everything I learnt there has made it so much easier to do what I'm doing and I don't know who else could have taught me. On paper, it looks crazy and sure it was a big risk but I never felt under any pressure if it didn't work.

"Still, at the start of the season I wasn't thinking that my best was 13.87 and I can only knock a small bit off that. If you watched me at the European Championships last summer then at the fifth hurdle I was more or less there with everyone, but then fell off a lot in the second half. Everyone was saying get stronger but I wasn't convinced that was the answer. It's about technique, and as soon as I talked to Seagrave he agreed. You can get away without being a great hurdler for three or four hurdles and just being quick. But the people who finish strong are always the technically best hurdlers.

"The improved technique means I can hit the fifth or sixth hurdle and feel like I'm still accelerating. And I know my start can be good when it needs to be. After that the most important part for me is between hurdles four and seven, because that's when they start coming up really fast. If you can blast through that and carry the momentum into the last part, then you're in good shape."

Before Seville, Coghlan had set himself the target of a medal at the World Student Games in Mallorca last month, only to be edged out of the bronze medal in a photo-finish. "That was a huge disappointment, biggest low of the year. But it has kept me fired up and really hungry. Looking back, it may be better because if I had won there I might have been satisfied and backed off, said that's it for the year. It's a good way to go into Seville in that I still have it all to prove."

Throughout the summer he's been watched by Paul Doyle, the young assistant coach to Seagrave who's witnessed the full metamorphosis in Coghlan. Neither of them are willing to contemplate the limits just yet. "It has been a smooth progression and there's no sign of stopping," says Doyle. "How fast he can go right now I really can't say now but if he gets the perfect start then we'll definitely see a faster time this year. His biggest asset is his mind in that he's so focused and that what makes him so consistent. I think that's why the four rounds of Seville will suit him as well."

Coghlan himself can't quite picture the perfect race: "I'm always wary about numbers. But I know if I get the start then I can hit 13.1 this season. It's just putting all the segments of all my races together. I think the mind re-adjusts very quickly since I ran the 13.30, but I've no long term limits. Realistically that point will come but right now we're just thinking faster and faster."

Even if the four years at Yale didn't quite crack his potential, it was time well spent and he hasn't forgotten his coach there, David Shoehalter - better known as Shoe - who at least kept him on track. "I suppose I went from 14.9 to 13.8 in two years which is huge. I had this reputation from school as the lazy guy who did really well anyway but by my third year at Yale I was suddenly this hardworking guy that everyone would look up to." Another indication of his progression occurred this summer when Shoe paid a visit to Ireland as part of a touring Yale team. "He came out to the track one day and was learning things from me. He was laughing at the touchdown times after hurdles because they weren't numbers he was used to."

The man who got him to Yale in the first place was Phil Conway, the athletics guru at Belvedere College who initially spotted the talent and the man that Coghlan still credits as the start of it all. "Rugby was my sport all through school and athletics was just something I did at the end of the year. I don't know why I ended up focusing on athletics and Phil would have the worst time trying to get me out on the track.

"But I've always been a fan of athletics, even if I'm passed the star-struck stage now. It was great to run in Zurich but I feel that I belong there now. I was laughing a bit heading out there because you can't take it too seriously."

Coghlan admits he's not very good at long term planning. The grant of £7,000 this year will just about pay off his debts yet he's laid back enough never to question whether he should have taken the more expected Ivy League route. "I know how lucky I am to be able to do what I want to do. Things are changing and it won't be a struggle for much longer. But I lined up beside the guys in Zurich and they're wearing the Nike and Adidas and I'm there with the Irish vest. I get a great buzz off that."

All of which brings him to Seville on a new high. "The summer has been great but I still don't feel like I've done anything yet, especially with what happened at the Student Games. If you said at the start of the year I'd run 13.30 then I'd have taken that. But if it ends there now I'll be disgusted. I want a place in the final."