Andrew Coscoran's 'bittersweet' feeling after men's 1500m final at the World Athletics Championships

There was a shock men's 1500m gold medal winner at the Japan National Stadium in Tokyo but Irish hopeful Andrew Coscoran was left wondering what might have been.

The 29-year-old tried to get among the leaders but couldn't find a way to compete for a podium place and finished his first outdoor global final in 12th place in 3:35.87.

Josh Kerr, who was the race favourite and one of three former world champions in the final, was accidentally caught on the achilles tendon by another athlete and he finished in 14th and last place.

His GB team-mate Jake Wightman looked set to win the title for the second time in four years but the Scot was dramatically pipped on the line by surprise winner Isaac Nader of Portugal in a time of 3:34.10, with Kenya's Reynold Cheruiyot in third.

While pleased to make it into the final courtesy of an impressive semi-final run, Coscoran felt he should have done better on the biggest stage.

"Yeah, that's why it's a little bit bittersweet, I ran really well to get into the final and to not really show up as my normal self there, it's a little bit disappointing," said the Balbriggan man.

"But I think as the season has gone, I'm pretty happy overall and we're getting a lot closer to what I think I'm capable of so yeah, we'll get there eventually."

Coscoran explained his tactics, but he seemed to get bogged down in shadowing Kerr and he got caught out when the race pace increased in the second lap.

"I was just trying to find a good position up the front and ended up wasting a bit of energy around the back too much," he said. "I just needed to get myself up into a higher position at the bell, I was too far back. But everyone wants to be there, so it's difficult to get there without wasting energy as well. So it's just one of those things.

"Usually if you're top five at the bell with 400 to go, you're generally in a medal position. So it was to get into that position and I just couldn't get there. I tried to get there, I usually have a really good last hundred, I tried to make a few surges but there were people in the way.

"I wanted to give it a really good crack so I was trying to get up the front, I probably could have picked up a few names at the end there, but I tried to make a few moves and burned myself out.

"It's a learning experience, I suppose, probably one I knew already but sometimes you can't do anything about it, unfortunately."

Coscoran's World Championship is not done yet as he is down to complete in the 5000m heats on Friday.