It was far from the ending to her fifth Olympic final that Sonia O'Sullivan had dreamt of, but, having been burned off the pace after 2-and-a-half laps of tonight's 5000m final, the Cobh athlete was still thankful for the experience.

SONIA O’SULLIVAN has drawn the easier of tonight’s two 5,000m Olympic semi-finals, but the Sydney silver medallist must run her best race of the year to get through to Monday night’s final.

Ireland's former 5000m world champion Sonia O'Sullivan comfortably qualified for Saturday's final in a season's best time of 14 minutes 55.50secs.

ON Saturday night, Sonia O’Sullivan watched Berhane Adere win the 10,000m title with her now familiar devastating sprint that demolished the gold medal aspirations of her Ethiopian team-mate Werknesh Kindane and Yingie Sun of China, who were the only two athletes remaining in the contest for the medals at the end of a sensational race.

UNA ENGLISH emerged as Ireland’s leading athlete at the World Cross-country Championships staged in sun-soaked Lausanne over the weekend when she finished 16th in the short course race.

The Irish women’s cross-country team performed brilliantly at Leopardstown racecourse today to claim the bronze medal in the team event.

Kenya's Edith Masai takes the gold medal in the Women's World Championship Cross Country event at Leopardstown.