Mark Carroll Coming Into Top Form Ahead of Olympics

05 August 2004

Mark Carroll ran an excellent race over 3000m at the IAAF Grand Prix meeting in Linz on Monday night, finishing a close second with a season's best of 7:48.03. The Irish 5000m record holder, who will be competing over that distance in Athens, was narrowly pipped by Khoudir Aggoune of Algeria to demonstrate he is getting into peak form at just the right time ahead of the Olympic Games. At the same meeting Freda Davoren also had a top performance with a 3rd place finish and season's best of 4:08.16 in the women's 1500m.

In Liege, Belgium, James Nolan ran a second season's best in four days as he finished 5th in the 800m with 1:48.84. This comes on the back of his 3:37.85 1500m run in Heusden on Saturday and provided some key speedwork as he enters his final preparation phase for Athens. Peter Coghlan ran a season's best in the 110m hurdles at the same meeting with 13.57, finishing 4th in a blanket finish against a top field.