Sean Tobin competed in his first Senior Indoor International for Ireland last weekend when running in the 3000m European Indoor Championships in Glasgow. He was drawn in heat two where he was ranked 11th in the field of 17 athletes. He came to these Championships on the back of a 10-week training camp in Australia with the renowned Melbourne Track Club, while in Australia he ran a PB in the 5000m outdoor, so the form was good.
In the race Sean started off well as he was close to the back of the field for the first few laps, as he knew the pace would increase greatly with a few laps to go. After 5 laps he moved up to around 8th place. On the tight track where it was hard to pass athletes every position was hard fought and precious. Then with about 600m to go the pace was increased and the field was spread out as athletes were now running in Indian file. Sean then began to make progress on the tight track and was passing athletes on the straight in each lap. On the last lap he accelerated dramatically and was making major inroads on the final qualifying spot coming off the final two bends. However, the finishing line came too soon, and he was edged out of the final qualifying spot by 0.67 of a second by Sam Parsons of Germany, with Sean finishing in 7 mins 56.27 secs, a seasonal best by Sean. This was a brilliant run by Sean as his plan nearly worked. Sean sets high standards for himself and while this was a brilliant performance by Sean, he himself was disappointed. After the race he commented “I saw the guys ahead and I was closing hard, getting around as many as possible. I was trying to close up to fourth spot, and just ran out of track really. When I look back at it, we had a plan for it, but it wasn’t enough. I probably should have moved a little earlier. With 400m to go, I was trying to get a move on, and at 600m as well but I kept getting pushed back. But I was fifth and it wasn’t good enough for the final.” Knowing Sean, he will have learned a lot from this experience, and he can look forward to a great 2019.