Tullamore Man Coaches World Athletics Finalist
Thursday, 29 July 2010
Pictured is Paul Robinson with his coach, Robert Denmead.
THE World Junior Track & Field Championships in Moncton, Canada last week brought together the best Under 20 athletes in the world. With athletes from over 170 countries competing competition was fierce and it was against this backdrop that 19 year old Paul Robinson from Kilcock took his place amongst the top junior 1,500m athletes in the world.
Paul's coach is Tullamore man, Robert Denmead, and Denmead was delighted with his performances in Moncton, as this was only the second time that an Irish man has qualified for the World Junior 1,500m final since this biannual event started in 1986. He has coached Paul for the past two years and in that time Robinson's 1,500m best has improved by 16 seconds from 3:59.8 to 3:43.83.
Paul's next target is the Irish Junior Mile record of 4:01.8 which is held by the 2005
European Junior 1,500m champion, Colin Costello, another athlete who was coached by Robert Denmead. The highlight of the week from an Irish point of view was the wonderful silver medal winning performance by 18 year old Ciara Mageean in the women's 1,500m in a new Irish record on 4:09.51, a time that is only a few seconds short of the Olympic qualifying standard. Mageean is running much faster than Sonia O' Sullivan ran at the same age so let's hope that we have
another superstar in the making.
In Canada, Robinson lined up alongside World Junior Cross Country Champion,
Caleb Mwangangi Ndiku of Kenya, in his heat and finished fourth in 3:44.04, just 1.7 seconds behind the Kenyan to qualify for the final. Amongst those he beat were two athletes with personal bests of 3.42 and also the American champion and the British competitor.
There were some big surprises when the three heats were completed as neither of the Ethopians and two of the highly fancied Europeans (with PB's of 3.40 and 3.41) made it to the final. With only one day recovery between the heat and the final it was was going to be a huge test of strength and character for Robinson in the final but he rose to the challenge magnificently as he placed ninth in the final (third European) in another fast time of 3:44.56.
The three athletes who finished behind him in the 12 man final were all finalists in last year's European Junior 1,500m Championship. The race was won by Mwangangi Ndiku in 3:37.30 with Anou of Algeria second in 3:38.86 and Al-Garni (Qatar) third in 3:38.91. Such was the level of competition that Mohamed Bensghir (Morocco) who has a personal best of 3:35.76 could only manage fourth place. Eamon Coghlan's best ever time for 1,500m was 3:35.6 so that shows just how good these guys are! A lot of them will go on to compete in future Olympic Games.
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