Andrew Coscoran lowered his own Irish indoor 1500m record on Thursday night a 3:33.09 run at Meeting Hauts-de-France Pas-de-Calais in Lievin, France.
Competing at the World Indoor Tour Gold event, the Balbriggan man finished third behind Italy's Federico Riva and world champion Isaac Nader from Portugal, who took victory in 3:32.44.
Coscoran’s previous best indoors was set during last year’s Wannamaker Mile at the Millrose Games in New York when he passed through 1500m in 3:33.40.
The 29-year-old impressed tonight going out hard, fading only slightly in the final 50 metres on the way to another national record.
Coscoran is entered in both the 1500m and 3000m for the 123.ie National Senior Indoor Championships in Dublin on 28 February and 1 March and will also be focusing on the upcoming World Indoor Championships in Torun, Poland.
Sharlene Mawdsley was also in action at the meet in Lievin. The Tipperary sprinter opened her season by clocking 51.85 to finish third in the women’s 400m. Mawdsley’s time is the fastest in the event by an Irishwoman so far this year and is also inside the Athletics Ireland 'B’ Standard for the World Indoor Championships.
Paris Olympian Luke McCann finished sixth in the men’s B 1500m race, clocking a season’s best of 3:39.89 as he continues his comeback from a long-term injury.
Britain's Keely Hodgkinson smashed the women's world indoor 800m record set by Slovenia's Jolanda Ceplak on the day the Olympic champion was born nearly 24 years ago.
Hodgkinson, clocked 1:54.87 in Lievin to slice 0.95 seconds off the mark of 1:55.82 Ceplak posted on March 3 2002.
She's had a strong start to the season, with a time of 1:56.33 at the UK Indoor Championships last weekend.
Hodgkinson took control of the race early on, passing 200m in 26.47 seconds and 400m in 55.56 seconds. By the 600m mark, reached in 1:25.06, the 23-year-old was well ahead of the field.
Switzerland's Audrey Werro finished a distant second after the Briton had powered away from the field to set the record.
Hodgkinson won an Olympic silver medal in Tokyo in 2021 before claiming gold at the Paris 2024 Games.
Additional reporting: Reuters
