Neil Coghlan Popular Books

Neil Coghlan Biography & Facts

Eamonn Christopher Coghlan (born 21 November 1952) is an Irish former track and field athlete who specialised in middle distance track events and the 5,000 metres. He is a three-time Olympian, held the world indoor mile record and was world champion in the 5,000 m. Coghlan served as a senator from 2011 to 2016. Born in Drimnagh, he had a successful amateur running career in Ireland that led to a scholarship in the United States, where he won four NCAA titles in track running and ran a sub-four-minute mile to set an Irish record at 22 years of age. He soon set the European record over the distance. His speciality was the indoor mile run – he gained his nickname, "The Chairman of the Boards", as a result of his great success on the US indoor circuit. He broke the indoor mile world record on three occasions and also set a world indoor record over 2,000 m. He finished fourth in the 1500 Metres at the 1976 Summer Olympics, fourth again in the 5,000 m at the 1980 Summer Olympics and made the 5,000 m semi-final in his last Olympic appearance at the 1988 Summer Olympics. He experienced greater success in the 1,500 m at the European Athletics Championships: he won the 1,500 m at the 1979 European Athletics Indoor Championships and outdoors took silver in the event at the 1978 European Athletics Championships. He was also the 5,000 m champion at the IAAF World Cup in 1981 and he became the world 5,000 metres champion at the 1983 World Championships in Athletics. After competitive retirement, he continued to race and became the first man over 40 years old to run a sub-four-minute mile. He has appeared as a panellist on Irish broadcaster RTÉ and released his autobiography, Chairman of the Boards, Master of the Mile, in 2008. In May 2011, Coghlan was appointed as a Senator by the Taoiseach Enda Kenny. Early life Coghlan was born in Drimnagh, Dublin, Republic of Ireland, and educated at St. Vincent's C.B.S., Glasnevin. He lived in Rye, New York for a number of years in the 1980s before returning to live in Ireland. He was a childhood friend of Brian Kerr, who went on to manage the Ireland national football team.Coghlan's first running club was the Celtic Athletic Club. He then joined Donore Harriers. After the Moscow Olympics in 1980, he moved to Metropolitan Harriers where he was coached by Gerry Farnan. He won the Leinster colleges cross country championships & the 5000m track title in 1970. The following year he won the All-Ireland 1500 metres and 5000 metres titles. In 1971 he was offered a scholarship by Villanova University. The famous running coach James 'Jumbo' Elliott invited Coghlan to train for the Villanova track and field team. While there he won four NCAA individual titles over 1500 meters and the mile. On 10 May 1975 Coghlan ran his first sub-4-minute mile in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (3:56.2). One week later, on 17 May, he broke the long-standing European Outdoor Mile record of Michel Jazy, in a time of 3:53.3 in Kingston, Jamaica. He graduated from Villanova University, Pennsylvania, USA in 1976 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Marketing and Communications. Personal life He and his wife, Yvonne, have four children. His youngest son, John, is one of Ireland's leading athletes who won a team gold medal in the European Cross Country Championships in Portugal in 2010. His eldest son, Eamonn, is a golf professional at Hearthstone Country Club, Houston, Texas. Indoor career Coghlan was nicknamed "The Chairman of the Boards" because of his success on indoor tracks. He won 52 of his 70 races at 1,500 m and 1 Mile from 1974 to 1987. He set the world record for the indoor mile run with a time of 3.52.6 at the San Diego Sports Arena in San Diego in 1979. He lowered this to 3:50.6 in 1981 and then bettered it to 3:49.78 in 1983 at New Jersey's Meadowlands Arena indoor arena. His record stood until 1997 when it was broken by Morocco's Hicham El Guerrouj in a time of 3:48.45. It is still the fourth fastest indoor mile of all time and is still, more than 30 years on, a European record. Coghlan's 1983 time was the fastest mile ever run in the United States until 10 June 2007, when Daniel Kipchirchir Komen ran 3:48.28 outdoors in Eugene, Oregon. It remains one of only four sub-3:50 miles run on American soil. By and large, Coghlan was more successful at indoor running notwithstanding a later world title in 1983 over 5,000 meters. Coghlan also set the record for the indoor 2,000 meter run at 4:54.07 in 1987, which stood until Haile Gebrselassie of Ethiopia ran 4:52.86 in 1998 (which was broken in 2007 when Kenenisa Bekele of Ethiopia ran 4:49.99). Coghlan won the world-famous Wanamaker Mile at the Millrose Games in NYC's Madison Square Garden a record seven times (1977, 1979–81, 1983, 1985, 1987) his last win being at the age of 34. His record stood for over twenty years with Bernard Lagat winning for an eighth time in 2010: Coghlan fired the starting pistol to the record-breaking race and presented Lagat with a trophy. Outdoor career He won the 5,000 metres at the 1983 World Championships to follow two fourth places in the Olympics (in the 1,500 meters in 1976 and the 5,000 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 1,200 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 5,000 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 1,000 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 1500m, in 3:36.57, 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. In December 1979 he ran the only sub 50-minute time in the Waterhouse Byrne Baird Shield 10 Mile Cross Country. In 1981, Eamonn won the gold medal at 5000m in the IAAF World Cup, competing for Europe (not shown in the medal table above). He missed out on the 1982 European Championships and the 1984 Olympic Games due to injury. Coghlan was eliminated in the 5000-metre semi-finals at the 1988 Seoul Olympics In 1985, he was a member of Ireland's four-man squad along with Marcus O'Sullivan, Frank O'Mara and Ray Flynn,.... Discover the Neil Coghlan popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Neil Coghlan books.

Best Seller Neil Coghlan Books of 2024

  • Ever Paler Copy synopsis, comments

    Ever Paler Copy

    Neil Coghlan

    Patrick and Amy waited years for the chance to have a child. And when it came, life dealt them a cruel hand. Can they use science to give them the chance to be parents again? Are t...

  • Screen Six synopsis, comments

    Screen Six

    Neil Coghlan

    Manny Gibbs, passing hours scrutinising CCTV security screens, doesn't have the most exciting job in the world. One evening, though, one of the screens shows something that Manny k...

  • Terminal Earth synopsis, comments

    Terminal Earth

    Neil Coghlan

    From lovers watching firestorms in exotic island locales to strangers playing a last game of baseball in abandoned America; through the eyes of sentient robot hunters or businessma...

  • The Bridge Builder of Arta synopsis, comments

    The Bridge Builder of Arta

    Neil Coghlan

    In a small park near his workplace, Benjamin McAuley finds two mysterious statues, sculptures that appear to defy the very laws of nature. Learning of the bizarre centuriesold lege...

  • Outstanding Matters synopsis, comments

    Outstanding Matters

    Neil Coghlan

    As the apocalypse approaches, Max, as head of the resident committee, has some very important issues to deal with. With anarchy spreading outside the building and fear and apathy i...

  • The Spring On Delaney synopsis, comments

    The Spring On Delaney

    Neil Coghlan

    Albert Mullard's family, living in a small Southern town in the final years of the 19th Century, strike it rich when pure spring water begins bubbling up in their backyard. Albert ...

  • Storm On Fifth Avenue synopsis, comments

    Storm On Fifth Avenue

    Neil Coghlan

    Construction workers sweat and toil in 1930 to raise the mighty Empire State Building. On lofty perches, high above New Yorkers going about their daily routines, the welders clambe...

  • The Travelling Storyteller synopsis, comments

    The Travelling Storyteller

    Neil Coghlan

    A history professor finds references to a storyteller in early 18th Century Europe, a storyteller who couldn't have existed. The more he delves into the case in order to prove it f...

  • The Late Holocene Event synopsis, comments

    The Late Holocene Event

    Neil Coghlan

    A global emergency, codenamed "Charlie", sees Graham Aubrey and thousands of civil servants like him cocooned under Whitehall. There, he makes lists, he grades shelters, he organis...

  • The Fisher Men synopsis, comments

    The Fisher Men

    Neil Coghlan

    Rural England is about to be torn apart by an airliner that has been wrenched from the skies. Aboard are a collection of ordinary souls, their various meandering life paths all abo...

  • One Morning, A Chest synopsis, comments

    One Morning, A Chest

    Neil Coghlan

    Nine men survive the Pacific storm and stagger across a deserted beach onto the uninhabited island. There, they seek shelter and prepare for the months ahead before they can leave ...