SONIA O’SULLIVAN is not ruling out a crack at the marathon at next year’s Olympic Games in Beijing.

WITH the Olympic Games just around the corner, the world championships, which get under way in Osaka today, has been described as a ‘dress rehearsal’ for Beijing by Patsy McGonagle, Athletics Ireland’s first full-time senior team manager.

A SQUAD that is young enough to form the nucleus of Ireland’s Olympic team for London 2012 will represent Ireland at the IAAF world championships in Osaka in two weeks.

Ireland's Alistair Cragg placed a disappointing seventh in the two-mile event at tonight's IAAF London Super Grand Prix at Crystal Palace.

Sonia O’Sullivan admitted she was a little disappointed by her display in her last road race on Irish soil in Dublin yesterday.

VICTORIA MITCHELL, her training partner, won the race but Sonia O’Sullivan won the hearts of the thousands who turned out to watch her final road race in Ireland in Dublin’s Phoenix Park yesterday.

Sonia O'Sullivan's final competitive outing in the Great Ireland Run ended in disappointment today.

Legendary Irish runner Sonia O'Sullivan takes part in her final road race in Ireland today.

THIS will not be her last race — far from it — but it will be the last time Sonia O’Sullivan competes in theBUPA Great Ireland Run.

ALISTAIR CRAGG will go head-to-head with Australian distance star Craig Mottram in Boston next weekend, it was confirmed last night.

ALISTAIR CRAGG has his sights set firmly on the European Indoor Championships in Birmingham on March 2/3/4, when he will defend his 3,000m title.

SONIA O’SULLIVAN lived up to her promise of wearing a Sunderland shirt in the heartland of their bitter rivals Newcastle on Sunday.

Meseret Defar broke the world 3,000 metres road running record in today's Newcastle/Gateshead meeting with a time of eight minutes 46.9 seconds.

ALISTAIR CRAGG will arrive in Cork today geared for a battling performance in the 3,000m at tomorrow’s BUPA Cork City Sports at The Mardyke.

TWO of the fastest men on earth return to The Mardyke on Saturday for the BUPA Cork City Sports with confirmation yesterday that two of America’s top sprinters, Bernard Williams and Tyree Washington, are set to line up for the 100m and 200m, respectively.

DERVAL O’ROURKE will kick off her outdoor season at The Mardyke on Saturday, where she claims star billing at the BUPA Cork City Sports.

More than 200 athletes are set to gather in Cork for the 55th BUPA Ireland Cork City Sports this weekend. Athletes from 32 countries with compete in 20 events and some well-known names are in the line-up.

Having claimed a fourth successive victory at the BUPA Great Ireland Run, Craig Mottram has hinted he will be back for more.

Australian Craig Mottram will be going for a fourth successive win when he runs in today's 10k BUPA Great Ireland Run in Dublin.

World 5000metres bronze medallist Craig Mottram will chase a fourth successive victory at the BUPA Great Ireland Run on Sunday.

CIARAN Ó LIONÁIRD will this week decide which US college’s offer of a track scholarship he will accept, buoyed by a scintillating debut on American soil at the weekend.

Ireland's Alistair Cragg continued his comeback from a back injury by finishing third in a high class 2-mile run at the Boston Indoor Games overnight.

Six-times European Cross-Country Champion Sergei Lebid has been confirmed for the Great Ireland Run in the Phoenix Park in April.

ALISTAIR CRAGG is relishing a testing return to the international track scene this month as he bids to put a bittersweet 2005 firmly behind him.

Sonia O’Sullivan will return from Australia to compete in the Visit Scotland Great Edinburgh Cross Country on January 14.

SONIA O’SULLIVAN has confirmed she would like to run for Australia in next year’s Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.

Ireland’s Sonia O’Sullivan today confirmed she would like to run for Australia in next year’s Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.

Australian Craig Mottram, currently the world’s best non-African distance runner, bids to enhance his fast-growing reputation in the British Telecom 3,000 metres road race on Saturday.

BRITAIN’S world record holder Paula Radcliffe banished memories of her Athens Olympics nightmare and ended years of near misses when she won the women’s marathon at the World Athletics Championships yesterday.

JUSTIN GATLIN became only the second man in World Championship history to complete the 100m/200m sprint double in Helsinki last night when he outgunned the young pretenders to add the 200m title to the 100m crown he won on Sunday.

LASSE VIREN’S long-striding style was a familiar feature of seventies distance running. Brendan Mooney met the flying Finn in Helsinki as the city prepares to host the World Athletics Championships.

CRAIG MOTTRAM may have failed narrowly to break his 3,000m Australian record at the BUPA Cork City Sports but his 7:38.15 ­ an Irish all-comers record - was the performance of the meet on a wet Saturday afternoon at the Mardyke.

The the performance of the day at today's Bupa Cork City Sports came from Australian Craig Mottram in the men's 3000m as he blew away the rest of the field in claiming victory in a time of 7 minutes 38 seconds.

BERNARD WILLIAMS may be the Olympic silver medallist at 200m but the track’s greatest entertainer is only on standby for that event at the BUPA Cork City Sports International Track and Field Meeting this afternoon and that demonstrates the amount of talent that will be on show at The Mardyke (2pm).

MARK CHRISTIE qualified for both the European under-23 championships and the world student games with a career best performance in the 1,500m at the Solihull meet over the weekend and now the Mullingar athlete can’t wait for the BUPA Cork City Sports on Saturday.

MARK CARROLL has confirmed his participation in the men’s 3,000m at the BUPA Cork City Sports on July 2 while his fiancée, Amy Rudolph, after a sensational 10,000m debut, drops back in distance to oppose double Olympic champion Kelly Holmes in the women’s 1,500m.

AMY RUDOLPH stole the show with the race-winning sprint at the Great BUPA Ireland Run in the Phoenix Park but Sonia O’Sullivan was beaming after achieving her target time - 32:18 - in the build-up to her London Marathon bid on Sunday.

An upbeat Sonia O’Sullivan believes she will be in the best possible shape for the 25th Flora London Marathon next Sunday.

Sonia O’Sullivan proved she is in good shape for the Flora London Marathon after finishing second behind Amy Rudolph in today’s Great BUPA Ireland Run in Dublin

SONIA O’SULLIVAN and Mark Carroll hope to show the Irish Sports Council they are not ready for the scrap heap as they take on a star-studded field in today’s Great BUPA Ireland Run in Dublin’s Phoenix Park.

European cross country champion Hayley Yelling faces a tough race in Ireland tomorrow as she bids for a return to winning form.

Craig Mottram believes Australian athletics will improve if runners arrive early to acclimatise to conditions prior to next year’s Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.

Defending champion Craig Mottram believes he is in better shape for this year’s Great BUPA Ireland Run in Dublin on Saturday.