SONIA O’SULLIVAN took another step along the now familiar path to major championship and Olympic engagements when she paraded her talents once again at the Mardyke on Saturday, and as they gave her the traditional send-off, she responded with an emphatic if not spectacular 5,000m victory in 15:15.95.

The rain fell relentlessly at the BUPA Ireland Cork City Sports at the Mardyke today and washed away the final opportunity for Irish athletes to qualify for the Olympic Games in Athens.

Sonia O'Sullivan turned on the style as she eased to victory in her final Irish appearance before next month's Olympic games at the Mardyke.

SOME of Ireland’s Olympic hopefuls have been going through a rough patch in recent days.

GILLIAN O’SULLIVAN has skipped this weekend’s walking extravaganza in Krakow and, instead, is receiving treatment on the lower back problem that has been affecting her technique in recent times.

SONIA O’SULLIVAN, fresh from her victory on the track in California last weekend, returns to the road tomorrow when she lines up for the 5k at Balmoral.

DONNACHA O’MAHONY (East Cork) rolled back the years to reclaim the Cork senior cross-country championship title while Freda Davoren (UCC AC) ran her first cross-country race in almost two years to claim her first county title at Inchigeela yesterday, when East Cork eventually won an enthralling team contest with their North Cork rivals.

DERVAL O’ROURKE will be a notable absentee from today’s Woodies DIY national senior track and field championships at Morton Stadium, Santry.

GARETH TURNBULL has achieved his ambition of posting the B standard for the world championships.

SINCE her sensational victory as a 17 year old back in 1987, when she beat a star-studded field in the women’s 3,000m, Sonia O’Sullivan has been a star attraction at The Mardyke.

Saturday’s BUPA Ireland Cork City Sports presents a number of local athletes with a golden opportunity to grab the limelight at Ireland's leading international track and field fixture.

SONIA O’SULLIVAN will be looking to tomorrow’s 1500 metres at the BUPA Ireland Cork City Sports to measure her form following Tuesday night’s disappointing 3000m run in Lausanne, where she finished a remote ninth to runaway Russian Yelena Zadorozhnaya.

SONIA O’SULLIVAN will face no fewer than 10 Africans when she launches her track season at the IAAF Super Grand Prix meeting in Lausanne this evening and one of the 20 strong field, Renee Kalmer from Germany, will follow her home for the BUPA Ireland Cork City Sports on Saturday afternoon.

DERVAL O’ROURKE set another new national under-23 record and continued progress towards world championship and Olympic qualification standard when she finished third in the 100m hurdles in 13.19 seconds at the European Cup match in Finland yesterday.

IRISH athletic talent will be distributed between Denmark and Finland this weekend, with the men and women’s teams involved in the European Cup matches.

DERVAL O’ROURKE has set two national under-23 records in three meets so far this season, and should she maintain this type of improvement the Cork starlet could be faced with something of a dilemma come August when the World Student Games in Korea clash with the IAAF world championships in Paris.

FREDA DAVOREN, who re-launched her career by finishing third in the road mile at Balmoral a week ago, got back on track on Saturday by outsprinting Kelly McNiece to win the 800m at the AAI International Games in Navan.

CURRENT British champion Shani Anderson, who won both the 100m and 200m at last year’s BUPA Cork City Sports, is set to return to defend to her titles on July 5.

Irish athletes have performed well during the early finals of the Triple A championships in Birmingham, winning both 3,000 metre walks and the women’s 1,500 metre and 3,000 metre races.