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The pursuit of a championship medal is no straightforward thing. For Andrew Coscoran, it’s been a 12-year process which eventually came to fruition in Birmingham on Saturday night. His European bronze medal in the 1,500 metres was won in thrilling and, in truth, unexpected fashion. It was a defining moment in which he delivered on the talent and potential first announced when winning the senior Irish Schools title back in 2014, in the colours of St Mary’s Drogheda. A native of Balbriggan in north Dublin, by the end of 2019, Coscoran was in danger of being lost to the sport. After taking up a running scholarship at Florida State University, he left after one year, never entirely comfortable in that environment. He returned home, worked some night shifts in McDonald’s to keep things ticking over, before joining up with the Dublin Track Club. Under the coaching of Feidhlim Kelly, he slowly got his career back on track. READ MORE After winning his first Irish indoor 1,500m title in 2020, he went on to qualify for the Tokyo and Paris Olympics, running a series of Irish records over 1,500m, the mile and 3,000m. Still, that step-up onto an international medal podium was proving stubbornly elusive. All of which was racing through his mind on Saturday night. Coming off the final bend, he was back in seventh. He surged into fifth midway down the straight and chased flat-out all the way to the line. With clenched fists, arms raised and roars of delight, his bronze-medal celebration said it all. “Obviously it’s been a long time coming,” said Coscoran, who, like Kate O’Connor, was back at the Alexander Stadium on Sunday evening for his medal ceremony. “The amount of times I’ve been in the final . . . I’ve been trying for a long time and eventually it clicked, I managed to get into the medals. This was the race of my life. It’s giving me a new lease now in the sport and we can kick on from here.” Stefan Nillessen from the Netherlands took gold in 3:35.70, with Sweden’s Samuel Pihlstrom also coming from behind to claim silver in 3:36.16, followed by Coscoran in 3:36.24. All very close, with Britain’s Jake Hayward fading just before the line and ending up fourth. Coscoran becomes the first Irish medal winner in the men’s 1,500m since Eamonn Coghlan, who won silver back in 1978. He also joins Ronnie Delany (who won bronze in 1958) and Frank Murphy (who won silver in 1959). At the age of 30, Coscoran is a reminder to any athlete that good and bad times will come and go, but talent will always remain. He credits his step up this summer to another change of coach, now working with Paul Robinson, his former Irish team-mate. Robinson finished a close fourth in this same race 12 years ago – run out of the 1,500m bronze medal in Zurich in 2014 by just .17 of a second. “I was probably calmer than I should have been,” Coscoran said. “I think at the World Champs last year, I was in the same position. But I kicked really hard with 300m to go and kind of ran out of juice. “Everybody knows the 1,500m at the moment is just unbelievably stacked, the depth is unbelievable. So everything has to go right on the day for you to get a medal. I knew that coming in here, if I could just keep myself on track, the training was good, everything was good. I knew I could have a good crack and yeah, it all worked out.” There was a clear spur too from Mark English winning the 800m two nights previously: “Mark’s an absolute inspiration. [If] someone from Ireland sets the standard, then we all know that we can do it. And there’s so many people over the last couple of years, Sarah Healy, Kate O’Connor, obviously, who are really laying the groundwork for Irish athletics to come through and for us to have confidence.” Jack O’Leary finished an admirable 10th in the 10,000m, in 28:24.89. The gold medal in that race went to Andreas Almgren from Sweden, who ran a championship record of 27:23.44. Hopes that Irish athletes might make an impression on the marathon faded around the streets of Birmingham on Sunday morning. Paul O’Donnell was the sole Irish finisher, coming home in 43rd place with a time of 2:20:41. David McGlynn made it to the 25km mark in the men’s race before also retiring, while Ryan Creech withdrew before the start with a “minor medical issue”. Fionnuala McCormack had started the women’s race with some medal aspirations, but after passing 10km in 24th position, she was forced to drop out shortly afterwards when feeling unwell.