Irish 1500m threat

Press, 15 July 1976, Page 6

Irish 1500m threat

NZPA staff corres. Montreal

Watch out for the Irishman, Eamonn Coghlan. in the 1500 metres at the Olympic Games. That is the advice of Marty Liquori, the United States middle-distance star who was forced out of the American Olympic track and field trials recently with a leg injury, and missed the Games team.

Liquori forecast last night that the Irish runner would be the chief threat to the gold medal hopes of John Walker, now that the Tanzanian, Filbert Bayi, will not be competing. “Coghlan’s a fine runner, and he’s coming along very well,” Liquori said in an interview with N.Z.P.A. at a pre-Games track and field meeting.

If Coghlan did upset Walker and the other runners to win the glamour race, he would be the first Irish gold medal winner in any Olympics event since Ron Delaney scored a surprise mile victory in Melbourne in 1956.

Coghlan, aged 23, comes from Dublin, but is studying at Villanova University in the United States. He has. therefore, done his most recent running in the United States, and this summer he won the national collegiate (university) and national Amateur Athletic Union titles, the former in a time of 3:37.1.

Coghlan was also second behind Bayi when the African set a then world record of 3:51 in the mile at Kingston, Jamaica, in May last year. Liquori was third in that race.

Although Liduori is not in the American team, he is in Montreal to work for the American television network, A.8.C., which the the Games contract.

Liquori said he was as dis-

appointed as anyone that Bayi had been forced out of the 1500 metres by Tanzania’s decision not to compete in the Games because of New Zealand’s presence.

He added that Bayi was sure to feel bad about missing the race, just as he himself felt bad about missing the 5000 metres. “You don’t mind iosing so much if you are beaten fairly on the track. It worries "you for a week or two, but you get over it. However, if you miss a race that you’ve trained

four years for because of a freak accident or something political, you’ll feel it all your life. “To have the opportunity to compete taken away is terrible, Liquori said. The American runner said his damaged leg muscle was improving steadily, and he expected to resume training today. He is aiming now to reach top fitness to take part in the “dream mile triple” in the United States and Europe next month.