On his father's floorboards

America at Large: The coach sounds as if he's more worried about this race than his pupil is

America at Large: The coach sounds as if he's more worried about this race than his pupil is. "I just hope," said Eamonn Coghlan, "he doesn't fall down."

Last Thursday, at the Phoenix Park, John Coghlan won his race in the Leinster Zone Cross Country Championships. Three days later he and his somewhat more famous father drove 102 miles each way to Nenagh, where Eamonn spent the better part of an hour schooling his youngest son on the vagaries of indoor running. The occasion marked the first time the son of the Chairman of the Boards had laid his feet to wood.

Two days later the Coghlans boarded their flight in Dublin, and by Tuesday night were unpacking their bags at the swank premises of the New York Athletic Club (NYAC). Tomorrow night, John Coghlan will make his indoor racing debut at Madison Square Garden, the site of many of his father's most memorable triumphs, in the 99th edition of the Millrose Games.

Between 1977 and 1987 Eamonn Coghlan won the storied Wanamaker Mile a record seven times. John won't be running in the Wanamaker, but in a special Boys High School Mile scheduled as the penultimate event on tomorrow night's card at America's oldest and prestigious indoor meet.

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"It's his first time on boards, and of course it's the middle of cross country season in Ireland," said Eamonn Coghlan. "The others will have been running indoor track for the past several months. John won't be at full speed, but he'll be at full strength.

"I'm not expecting him to win," added Eamonn.

"He's never run indoors, and the first race at Madison Square Garden can be a big shock to even the most experienced indoor runner."

Although John was at Madison Square Garden to watch his father win the Masters Mile at both the 1993 and 1994 Millrose Games, "he was quite young then, and I'm not sure he remembers much about it," said Eamonn.

Although John has studied videotapes of his father's races, Sunday's journey to Seán Naughton's Nenagh Olympic Club - Ireland's only indoor athletics facility - represented a crash-course in the demands particular to racing on sharp, banked turns where the elbows are likely to be flying.

"I was mainly just trying to show him how to run the turns," explained Coghlan.

Although John is the only competitor in a field of nine who is being put up at the NYAC, Eamonn is quick to point out that he pulled no strings to get his son into the race.

"It will be a great opportunity for him to be seen by American college coaches, and of course I'm delighted that he's going to be running in a venue where I enjoyed so much success.

"But the fact of the matter is that he got here on his own. He has a place in the field because he earned one by winning the All-Ireland Schools Intermediate 1,500 metre title.

"And although it's a high-profile event, he shouldn't be under a lot of pressure, because he isn't expected to win," said John's father. "Hell, I don't even expect him to win. He's coming in as a junior, so he'll be one of the younger runners even in this race."

That pragmatic view has not dissuaded the meet organisers from an apparent attempt to sell tickets by trading off his name. A press release last week noted that, "With many of the country's best middle-distance runners competing, many eyes will no doubt be fixed on John Coghlan, whose family history at Millrose is incomparable."

John's best official time for the mile was the modest four minutes 40 seconds clocked in the Goal mile back in Dublin, but he has, his father pointed out, run a 4:03 1,500 metres, which translates as closer to a 4:19 mile.

"I've tried to teach him to concentrate on winning rather than his race times," said Eamonn. "Those will come with experience."

John does figure to face some formidable competition at the Garden tomorrow night.

"The best lad in the field, (Dan McManamon of Clifton Park, NY) ran a 4:10.72 at the Reebok Indoor Games in Boston last Saturday, and there are two or three others who've run in the 4:12-4:13 range," noted Eamonn. "So based on form, if he doesn't fall down he should be somewhere in the middle of the pack."

"I should be all right," said John. "It's my first time ever running indoors, so I don't really know what to expect."

His unfamiliarity with the competition also makes it difficult to formulate a pre-race strategy, "but then they don't know anything about me, either," said John. "They could be gone after two laps. We'll just have to wait and see."

Millrose field

MARK AMIRAULT: Xaverian Brothers, Westwood, MA: 2005 Massachusetts CC Champion.

ALEX BEAN: Somers, Lincolndale, NY: 2005 Bishop Loughlin Mile runner-up

JOHN COGHLAN: Castleknock, Dublin, Ireland: 2005 All-Ireland Schools Intermediate 1,500m champion

GREG KELSEY: Saratoga Springs, NY: 2005 Brown Inv Mile Champion; 2005 Foot Locker CC Finalist

GREG KILEY: Saratoga Springs, NY: 2006 Yale Classic Mile Champion

DAN McMANAMON: Shenendehowa, Clifton Park, NY: 2005 National Scholastics Indoor Mile champion, 2006 New Balance Games Mile Champion

BRIAN RHODES-DEVEY: Guilderland, NY: 2006 Yale Classic 3,000m champion; 2006 Hispanic Games Mile Champion

BEN WHITE: Liverpool, NY: 2005 NY 1,600m Champion Outdoors; 2005 National Scholastics Indoor Mile runner-up

CHARLES WHITE: Garden City, NY: 2005 Glenn Loucks Invitational 1,600m Champion