Outdoor Career
He won the 5000 metres at the 1983 World Championships (& remains Ireland's only ever male World Champion gold medallist) to follow two fourth places in the Olympics (in the 1500 meters in 1976 and the 5000 meters in 1980).
In the 1976 Olympics, he probably made a mistake by taking the lead at 500 metres and by not accelerating enough before the winner, John Walker, passed him at 1200 metres. Thus he lost valuable energy which he would have needed in the home straight's struggle against Walker, Belgium's Ivo van Damme and West Germany's Paul-Heinz Wellman. In the 1980 Olympics 5,000 metres he probably made a mistake by sprinting to the lead at the start of the last back straight.
In any case, he led the race for only a few seconds before Ethiopia's Miruts Yifter kicked past him on the inside. By contrast, in the 1983 World Championships in Athletics 5000 metres, Coghlan was in peak shape and ran intelligently, catching the Soviet Union's Dmitry Dmitriyev on the last back straight and sprinting past him with about 120 metres to go. He ran the last 1000 metres very fast, in 2:24.77, and won the race by 1.67 seconds, despite clearly slowing down in the final metres. He also won silver at the 1978 European Championships in Prague over 1500 m, behind Steve Ovett of Great Britain, and in 1979, he competed in his only European Indoor Championships (he raced sparingly on the European indoor circuit due to his indoor commitments in the US), taking the gold medal in the 1500 m in Vienna. He missed out on the 1982 European Championships and the 1984 Olympic Games due to injury. He won the IAAF World Cup in 1981 over 5000 m. Coghlan was eliminated in the 5,000-metre semifinals at the 1988 Seoul Olympics
In total, Coghlan ran 83 sub 4 minute miles, indoor and out.
Read more about this topic: Eamonn Coghlan
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