ANDREW COSCORAN BOWED out of the Tokyo Olympics with a 10th-place finish in the semi-finals of the men’s 1500m on Thursday.
Balbriggin’s Coscoran clocked a time of 3:35.84 — less than two-tenths of a second outside his personal best.
But it wasn’t enough to get him into the top five of a fiercely competitive semi-final and an automatic place in Saturday’s final.
Britain’s Jake Wightman was first across the line in 3:33.48 with America’s Cole Hocker and reigning world champion Timothy Cheruiyot of Kenya also running sub-3:34 times in second and third.
“I’m just surprised,” Coscoran told RTÉ afterwards. “I ran 3:35.8 there, which is pretty good, but I’m still way off. The standard is insane.
“There’s class guys in there. I’m happy to able to run in there and mix with them.”
On his tactics, he explained: “I knew it was quick so I just went to the back and tried to tuck in and wait for guys to die off the pace.
“I knew they were going to run fast but everyone was able to hold it together and I wasn’t able to come through like I wanted to.”
In the second semi-final, Kenya’s Abel Kipsang set a new Olympic record of 3:31.65 to beat Jakob Ingebrigtsen of Norway, who ran 3:32.13
