Eamonn Coghlan Shows his Worth

EAMONN COGHLAN'S achievement in winning a silver medal at the European Championships in Prague was an outstanding accomplishment even though he had to take second place in the 1500 metres race' to Steve Ovett.

Before the race there was virtually nobody outside the Irish camp who rated his chances against not only Ovett, who was almost unanimously predicted to win, but also Dave Moorcroft of Britain, the new 800 metres champion, Olaf Beyer of East Germany, Antti Loikkanen of Finland and Thomas Wessinghage of West Germany. It was probably the most formidable line-up for a 1500 metres' race that had ever been assembled.

Ovett ran a well-near perfect race that took him to victory in 3:35.6-a second slower than his World Cup win of a year earlier.

Eamonn Coghlan hardly ran the race in a textbook manner. He ran next to iast on the first lap and seemed over-concerned, about the whereabouts of Loikkanen. He even dropped to last on the second lap but the field was tightly packed with all the contenders moving at a steady pace. Perhaps, too steady a pace with Ovett's finishing speed in mind. But, was Coghlan to make a pace and leave himself exposed to a massed assault from the rear? He was too likely to remember Montreal to make that mistake again. In the 300 metres from the 800 metres point until they reached the bell, Coghlan did work his way through the field. He had a fair amount of luck in this phase insofar as he made this progress without too much chopping and changing of either pace or position.

He appeared to be going "through the eye of a needle" to get his chest in front at the bell and on the very inside kerbing. This, almost predictably, lead to his later troubles. The rest of the field picked up the pace and, suddenly, Coghlan was in a bunch of runners now moving at halffmile pace. He was totally boxed in while Ovett who had been striding along' just behind the leaders appeared to have the freedom of Prague-in a geological sense-out in Lane 3. And he struck suddenly arid decisively from that position.

Of all the runners in the field, Coghlan was least well placed to respond. But, somewhat paradoxically, this may have been. a .major factor in his eventual silver medal. The "pack" went after Ovett as best they could but none of them ever had any real hope of catching him; not even Coghlan with a dear run. So, the gold medal issue was quickly resolved.' Now for the other medals ... and one wonders how many runners went into the race believing that was the best they could hope for. '

The Frenchman, Marajo, with Loikkanen, Moorcroft and Westinghage were all ahead of Coghlan as he broke free- his silver medal was cast at this stage. With his chest and legs proclaiming power and speed, he hurtled past these other contenders and his joy in reaching the finish line in second place was there for all to see. Several athletics commentators present believed that Coghlan's finish was probably the fastest finish by any runner ever in a major 1,500 Metres evenr-including any of Ovett's famous bursts!

Ovett is a super athlete. With his victories in the World Cup and in the European Championships firmlv engraved in the statistical lists, one may fairly ask if he can break the world record of 3:32.2 by Filbert Bayi of Tanzania. It could happen at the Coca-Cola Meeting in London on 15th September when Coghlan may again be among his rivals.

I think Coghlan could have ended up with an even faster time than his 3:36.6 in Prague. It's a new Irish record breaking his own 1976 mark and it's a marvellous achievement. nut it is justfiable to ask what his limit at 1,500 Metres is and, depending on the answer to that, should he think of moving up to 5,000 Metres before the 1980 Moscow Olympics?

My answers, very briefly. would be "about 3:34.0" and "yes". He set an Irish record of 13:26.6 in the famous July race at Belfield almost out of the blue. A two-year proogramme would certainly take him below European Record standard (13:13.0). The new world record of 13:08.4 by Henry Rono of Kenya is one of athletics' most prestigious performances but is was not achieved in very competitive circumstances and I rather doubt that the gold medal in Moscow would require that pace. The 5,000 Metres title in prague was won in 13:28.5-s10wer than Coghlan's Irish mark-vand there was a widely held view in Prague (before the Championships began) that Coghlan should have been aiming at that event even there. It's an almost pointless, speculation but the possibility-and it is no more than that-exists that he could have won it.

OHN Treacy went to Prague with our high hopes of a place in the first six of the 10,000 Metres. He disappointed us -but, more importantly, he badly disappointed himself. The early pace was fast and he was in trouble from the first lap, even though he was in contact for l5,laps of the

Above: Steve Oueu. 25. I'm sure he had an off-night which is hardly surprising in a young man who has just passed his 21 st birthday. But the response of this Waterford runner to that disappoinrmenr was, very possibly, the most heartening Irish performance in Prague. Within 48 hours, he qualified from a semi-final of the 5,000 Metres. Another 48 hours later-and his third race in 5 days-he faced a field of 14 other finalists.

Running one of the bravest races that I have seen - and, indeed, should have expected from the World Cross-Country Champion - he had the misfortune to make two minor errors on his last lap. With about 250 metres to go, he let a little gap open between the leaders and himself. Treacy cannot say why this happened; he referred to his own inexperience. But, as they came into the finishing straight, and almost as Coghlan did the following day, he moved into an exciting higher gear and he streaked past two or three runners as he neared the tape.

In front of him the three evenrual medallists were spread across lanes 2-5 and going at a fairly furious pace. Treacy came at them in lane 4 and, in the heat of the moment, moved to the inside when almost everything shouted for an outside attack. Ortiz of Italy won from deaddheating Ryffel (Switzerland) and Fedotkin (U.S.S.R.). John Treacy was 4th, a mere three-tenths of a second behind the winner ... exactly the same margin which separated golddmedallist Walker from 4th-placed Coughlan in the Monrreal 1,500 Metres!

It's an impertinence for the observer, however expert, to criticise the instant decisions of a competitor in the heat of battle. Treacy knows he made these errors and I venrure to suggest that he will have learned from them; it's not conndescending to point out again that this was his debut in major international competition on the track. The sad thing is that his first little error removed him from conrention for the gold medal while his-second error almost certainly deprived him of a silver or bronze.

It was apparent in Prague-though not officially recognised that many of the athletes in the strength events were missusing anabolic steroids to build up muscle mass artificially. It is, apparently, impossible to detect this abuse if the athlete stops taking the steroids 3-4 weeks before a major Championnships.In fact, there were two medallists at Prague who, this time last year, were "Suspended for life" because drugs tests at the European Cup Finals had proved positive. But, early in the Summer, these punishments were altered to "one year's suspension" and Ilona Slupianek (East Germany) won the Women's Shot Putt at Prague and Markku Tuokko (Finland) took the silver award in the Man's Discus. Neither showed much sign of having gone into a decline before the "reprieve" !

The successes of Eastern European countries at Prague also raises serious questions yet again about the future of amatuer sport.

The national squads of several Eastern European countries spent the whole of August in training camps where their every need was amply catered for-coaching skills and equipment, specialist sports medical attention, etc., etc. If any athlete felt the need for a serious trial, then competitions were organised. Short visits to some of the major western athletics meetings were also arranged if it was felt that this would benefit a particular athlete but, then with as little delay as possible, back to the training camp and the progresssive build-up for Prague.

It doesn't provide all the answers of course but it certainly helped to produce that massive medal haul in the Czech capital. Now, these athletes will compete in Europe and Japan for the rest of September before gathering together again in mid-October. This time, it's all for relaxation, the healing of injuries, with the occasional studying of videoorecordings of their own and other performances. But it's basically a winding-down stage in luxury surroundings in the favoured winter resorts.

By Christmas, some of them will begin to work hard again for the indoor season of February and early March or for the cross-country activity of that same stage. The rest of March and April provides another wind-down spell in total comfort before the whole summer build-up starts again. No doubt, next year's European and World Cups and the Moscow Spartakiade-a major pre-Olympic Festival-will be the foci of their attentions but they will all be approached in the context of the Olympics in Moscow in 1980.