Spar Mile Challenge

Irish Milers

Ireland is one of the most renowned country's in the world for milers. This photograph celebrates our five famous milers and the Spar Mile Challenge has been developed from the impact of their achievements. Ireland's first sub four minute miler is Ronnie Delany. He broke the magical four minute barrier on 1 June 1956. Of course he will be forever remembered for his Olympic Gold medal in the metric mile (1500m) later that year in Melbourne. Delany's fastest mile is 3.57.5.

Ireland's history as a nation of milers was really cemented in the eighties. Coghlan, Flynn, and O Sullivan were national icons in that era. Coghlan broke the four minute barrier in 1975 but he will always be remembered for his exploits on the boards. He was widely known as the Chairman of the Boards. The boards are a reference to indoor tracks. He was the first man to break 3.50 for the mile indoors with his 3.49.78 in 1983. This was a world record that stood for 16 years and has only been bettered by Olympic Champion and world record holder Hicham El Geurrouj. Eamonn is still the only athlete in the world over the age of forty to have run a sub four minute mile and his time of 3.58.15 at the age of 41 may never be broken.

Coghlan's great rival was Ray Flynn both indoors and outdoors. Ray Flynn was a phenomenal junior talent and his junior record for the mile of 3.41.5 still stands. Ray of course is the Irish record holder for the mile with 3.49.77. This was recorded in Oslo on 07-07-82 which is the date of the Spar Mile Challenge exactly 25 years later.

In 1983 another young miler broke the four minute mile. Marcus O Sullivan followed the others to the US and few could have guessed the heights his career would rocket to. Not only did he become a world champion but he ran an astonishing 100 sub four minute miles.

Finally they all combined on a magical night in 1985 to break the world 4 x 1 mile world record with another world champion, Frank O Mara. The quartet ran the four miles in 15.49.

The exploits of these great athletes will leave their mark on generations. The first signs of this were to be seen in 1992 when a young Cobh girl ran her heart out in the Barcelona Olympics. The emergence of Sonia O Sullivan was stunning and her career over the next 20 years is testament to that. She is fastest Irish female miler with a time of 4.17.26 and it is difficult to see more than a handful of runners beating that on the 07-07-07.