Eamonn Coghlan

Ireland's Olympic selectors have decided not to send Eamonn Coghlan, the former world 5,000-meter track champion, to the Seoul Olympics. Coghlan, 35, one of the most successful indoor runners in track history but virtually retired from outdoor racing, recently secured an Olympic qualifying time for the 5,000 meters in a bid to make the Olympic team. But the Olympic Council of Ireland's selection committee announced yesterday that it had turned down the Republic of Ireland Athletics Association's request to send Coghlan to Seoul.

John Coghlan was only 10 years old when he decided to put away his soccer ball and take up running in his native Ireland. As he got better at it, he turned to his father for help and guidance, but the older man didn't exactly react with rampant enthusiasm. You see, John's father is Eamonn Coghlan, one of the greatest runners in Villanova history. A four-time world-record holder in the indoor mile, he became known as the "Chairman of the Boards" for his seven victories in the Wanamaker Mile at the prestigious Millrose Games.

In a footrace dedicated to the premise that time indeed is money, Britain's Peter Elliott will try to beat the clock for $100,000 tonight at the Meadowlands Arena. That tidy sum has been designated for the winner of the Eamonn Coghlan mile in the Meadowlands indoor invitational meet - but only if the winner covers the distance faster than Coghlan ever has. In the event that later would bear his name, Coghlan put his trademark on the race in 1983, when he toured the 160-meter Meadowlands track in 3 minutes, 49.78 seconds - a world indoor record that still stands.

Among other track-and-field tidbits gleaned this past weekend at the Dallas Morning News Indoor Games: A DONATION. For the second straight year in Dallas, Carl Lewis donated his $5,000 meet appearance fee to charity - the Carl Lewis Foundation of Essex, N.J. The money will be used to tutor underprivileged high school students for college board exams and to help retarded children attend summer camps. Lewis' often-mentioned show business career, which has yet to come out of the blocks in a big way, may reach a new high later this month, with the release of the movie Dirty Laundry and a concert next Friday in San Antonio, Texas.

Everywhere you turned last night, someone was using the 92nd Penn Relays to blaze new trails or re-blaze a trail that had become overgrown with weeds because it had not been traveled in such a long time. Ex-Villanova all-timer Eamonn Coghlan, for instance, won the men's Olympic Development 10,000 meters and former Arkansas star Frank O'Mara did likewise in the Olympic Development 5,000, clocking 13:28.8. Coghlan had run just one previous 10K; O'Mara had run just one 5K. Meanwhile, in the college women's 10,000 championship, the winner was a will-o'-the-wisp from North Carolina State running the event on a track for the first time ever.

In recent years, fortysomething stars such as Jimmy Connors, George Foreman, Robert Parish and Nolan Ryan have inspired us all by rising improbably to the top of their sports despite their comparatively venerable age. But for my money, the most amazing accomplishment by an athlete in his 40s occurred in relative obscurity last Feb. 20 in Cambridge, Mass. I'm only engaging in mild hyperbole when I say it was nothing less than the most defiant affront to the aging process ever. Alas, The Inquirer buried it in a column of sports briefs.

With a cast gleaned from more than 90 nations, the first World Indoor Championships in track and field history open today in the Hoosier Dome, a facility that may threaten indoor track's most accomplished miler with his first defeat of the year. That's how this three-day mini-Olympics looms for Eamonn Coghlan, the 34- year-old former Villanovan whose indoor success is evident in his title, "Chairman of the Boards. " While he has yet to challenge his world indoor standard of 3 minutes, 49.78 seconds, Coghlan this year has won six times in six assaults on the mile and proved his quality even more with a world record of 4:54.

It was the spring of 1985, his sophomore year at Villanova, and Gerry O'Reilly was visiting his good friend and Ireland's hero, Eamonn Coghlan, in New York. Their conversation was interrupted by a knock at the door. It was a young boy who had come to ask "Mr. Coghlan" for an autograph. "It was funny, the kid lived about 20 miles from me at home in Ireland," O'Reilly said. "Eamonn went and got him a photo and signed it. I didn't want to ask him for one, but since he had all his things out, I said, 'Any chance you could stick your name on one of those for me?

There is no men's pro or college basketball to watch either live or on television tonight. Sure, you can listen to the Penn at Columbia men's game on the radio (7:30 p.m., WIP 610-AM and WXPN 88.5-FM), but wouldn't you really rather see what you're missing? If so, you ought to wander over to the Palestra and check out the Penn vs. Columbia women's game. What you see will likely surprise you. Penn coach Julie Soriero has done a good job since taking over the team two seasons ago. Penn comes into tonight's game with Columbia at the Palestra sporting an 8-8 record.

In a sport whose record achievements usually last no more than a season or two, Eamonn Coghlan's world indoor mile standard has been a remarkably durable exception. It has been almost eight full years since the night of Feb. 27, 1983, when Coghlan scorched his way around the 160-meter Meadowlands track in 3 minutes, 49.78 seconds. The Irishman and former Villanovan remains the only runner ever to beat the 3:50 barrier for a one-mile foot race indoors. Yet there is a fair chance that Coghlan's record finally will fall tonight in the 22d Vitalis/Meadowlands Invitational under the two-pronged assault of an experienced old friend and an exciting new talent.

John Coghlan was only 10 years old when he decided to put away his soccer ball and take up running in his native Ireland. As he got better at it, he turned to his father for help and guidance, but the older man didn't exactly react with rampant enthusiasm. You see, John's father is Eamonn Coghlan, one of the greatest runners in Villanova history. A four-time world-record holder in the indoor mile, he became known as the "Chairman of the Boards" for his seven victories in the Wanamaker Mile at the prestigious Millrose Games.

In recent years, fortysomething stars such as Jimmy Connors, George Foreman, Robert Parish and Nolan Ryan have inspired us all by rising improbably to the top of their sports despite their comparatively venerable age. But for my money, the most amazing accomplishment by an athlete in his 40s occurred in relative obscurity last Feb. 20 in Cambridge, Mass. I'm only engaging in mild hyperbole when I say it was nothing less than the most defiant affront to the aging process ever. Alas, The Inquirer buried it in a column of sports briefs.

Leroy Burrell got off to the worst start of his world-class career last night, but left the 87th Millrose Games at Madison Square Garden feeling optimistic about the rest of the season. Starting out of Lane 3 in the men's 60-meter dash, Burrell failed to come through with his usual instantaneous reaction to the starter's gun and suffered a sluggish start. A grievous error in a race so short, it left Burrell out of contention before he rebounded, gave it a superb effort, and finished behind Henry Neal of Houston and Bruny Surin of Canada.

For the second time in as many tries, Noureddine Morceli of Algeria won the Wanamaker Mile last night in the 86th Millrose Games, surviving a tough challenge from Ireland's Marcus O'Sullivan. Morceli was timed in 3 minutes, 55.06 seconds, perceptibly slower than the 3:53.50 he ran to win the event in 1991 and far off Eamonn Coghlan's world record of 3:49.78 for the distance. A five-time Wanamaker winner who has never beaten Morceli, O'Sullivan finished at 3:55.36, little more than a stride back.

There is no men's pro or college basketball to watch either live or on television tonight. Sure, you can listen to the Penn at Columbia men's game on the radio (7:30 p.m., WIP 610-AM and WXPN 88.5-FM), but wouldn't you really rather see what you're missing? If so, you ought to wander over to the Palestra and check out the Penn vs. Columbia women's game. What you see will likely surprise you. Penn coach Julie Soriero has done a good job since taking over the team two seasons ago. Penn comes into tonight's game with Columbia at the Palestra sporting an 8-8 record.

In a sport whose record achievements usually last no more than a season or two, Eamonn Coghlan's world indoor mile standard has been a remarkably durable exception. It has been almost eight full years since the night of Feb. 27, 1983, when Coghlan scorched his way around the 160-meter Meadowlands track in 3 minutes, 49.78 seconds. The Irishman and former Villanovan remains the only runner ever to beat the 3:50 barrier for a one-mile foot race indoors. Yet there is a fair chance that Coghlan's record finally will fall tonight in the 22d Vitalis/Meadowlands Invitational under the two-pronged assault of an experienced old friend and an exciting new talent.

Hoping to move up on an old friend, Marcus O'Sullivan goes after his fifth Wanamaker Mile championship tonight in the 84th Millrose Games at Madison Square Garden. O'Sullivan, 29, the Havertown, Pa., resident who first won the crown jewel of indoor footracing in 1986, will be shooting for his fourth consecutive Wanamaker title against an international field that includes Noureddine Morceli, the 20-year-old Wunderkind from Algeria. Ranked No. 1 in the world last season at 1,500 meters, Morceli beat O'Sullivan the last time they faced each other, a year ago in Los Angeles.

In a footrace dedicated to the premise that time indeed is money, Britain's Peter Elliott will try to beat the clock for $100,000 tonight at the Meadowlands Arena. That tidy sum has been designated for the winner of the Eamonn Coghlan mile in the Meadowlands indoor invitational meet - but only if the winner covers the distance faster than Coghlan ever has. In the event that later would bear his name, Coghlan put his trademark on the race in 1983, when he toured the 160-meter Meadowlands track in 3 minutes, 49.78 seconds - a world indoor record that still stands.

When Irish guys go miling tonight at the Millrose Games, one of them will try to prove that age is only a number and no handicap at all to winning a fast-paced footrace. That lofty ambition belongs to Eamonn Coghlan, the 37-year-old veteran from Ireland and Villanova who has come out of a short-lived retirement as "Chairman of the Boards" to return to the Wanamaker Mile. Over an 11-year period that started in 1977, Coghlan won the showpiece event of the Madison Square Garden indoor meet seven times - more than any other runner in the 62-year history of the race.

Watch his race strategy and the judicious moment when he unleashes his powerful finishing kick, and it becomes clear why Marcus O'Sullivan is the Thinking Man's Miler. O'Sullivan also qualifies as the Miling Man's Thinker, and therein lies a problem that may be evident tonight when the unbeaten former Villanova star goes after his fourth victory of the indoor season in the Vitalis Meadowlands Invitational. O'Sullivan's trouble is sleep, or more accurately, the amount of sleep he loses thinking about races, rivals and competition.