O’Sullivan to run Phoenix Park race for final time

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.

The Cork woman will certainly bow out in style if she wins in the Phoenix Park tomorrow afternoon.

The 37-year-old Cobh superstar heads a record field of 9,000 runners in what she has described as the beginning of her last lap — her way of describing what is a winding down process rather than retirement.

Included in the line-up will be the diminutive Ethiopian, Derartu Tulu, who has six world and Olympic gold medals in her treasury, has won events like the London Marathon and is a three-time world cross-country champion.

Hattie Dean, who finished 15th, just behind Ireland’s European silver medallist Fionnuala Britton, in last month’s world cross-country championships in Mombasa, the promising young Australian, Victoria Mitchell, another UK runner, Helen Clitheroe, as well as athletes from Belgium, Spain and Holland complete a formidable elite women’s line-up.

“It is not going to be an easy race to win but then I didn’t want an easy race to win. I’ll be trying like hell to win it,” Sonia insisted. “It is a big event and it is good to keep the competition level high and to have people who want to come here and race.

“This has grown into a huge event and if they were take it out of the Phoenix Park and bring it into the City it will become even bigger. We have seen it in Manchester and Newcastle — everywhere they hold them. I think this race is here to stay.’’

It was fitting that Sonia O’Sullivan should choose the event for her last road run in Ireland because, while she did not run it every year, Ireland’s most famous athlete has been synonymous with it since its inception.

She will be back in Cork and her favourite track for Cork City Sports on June 30, she confirmed. She will also run this year’s national track and field championships and she wants to run a marathon. In fact she wants to run the Olympic A standard, though she insisted next year’s Olympic Games in Beijing are not on her agenda.

“A marathon later in the year would be a priority for me,” she said. “That’s because I feel this is the one event where I can definitely improve.

“I would like to run a pb for the marathon. In fact I would like to run the Olympic A standard but that does not mean I would want to go to Beijing next year. If you asked me right now if I would want to go to Beijing next year I would say no.”

Mark Carroll, however, has Beijing on his mind. He will line up among the elite men on Sunday when the teak-tough Australian, Craig Mottram, will be hot favourite to win the race for the fifth year in a row.

“I will run a marathon in the fall but, while I love New York and I think it is a great race, I will be looking for a flatter, faster, cushier course where I can achieve the A standard,” the Corkman said.

“Having said that you don’t always need to be in super shape to win an Olympic marathon. I, personally, would want the confidence of having achieved the A standard and that’s my ambition for this year.”