Sonia may have shot at Beijing marathon

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

That’s eight years after winning her silver medal in the 5,000m in Sydney and four years after her Olympic dream was shattered in the intense heat of Athens.

Since then she launched her winding down programme, thousands joining her in Dublin’s Phoenix Park for what was to be her last major road race in Ireland.

An injury ruled her out of a farewell race at Cork City Sports, but she returned to her native Cobh for what many considered a farewell road race a few weeks ago.

Now it appears she may be building up for one more big run. On Sunday she runs in the Berlin Marathon with the Olympic qualifying standard as her target. To help her along the way she will have the massive presence of Aussie Craig Mottram.

On Saturday Mottram will compete over 3,000m in Newcastle — a prelude to the Great North Run — and he will fly immediately to Berlin.

But Sonia is playing down the significance of the run. “Craig will be pacing me,” she confirmed. “But its more like we will be running together. We did that in the Great North Run before and we enjoyed it and we have just decided to run together again and see what happens.

“Craig wants to find out what a big marathon is like. He is obviously looking towards the marathon eventually.

“As for myself I have no idea what my form is like. I have been doing a lot of long runs but have not done any sessions. I had intended to do some speed sessions but I picked up a bit of an injury and had to back off.

“Last year I did not have any real preparation or any real ambitions for the race and I ended up running 2:42. I suppose really my ambition is much the same as last year.

“As far as I know the qualifying standard for Beijing is around 2:37. That’s six minute miles and I feel that is possible. I will decide when I get into the race.”

Should she succeed in reaching the qualifying standard for Beijing she is still unsure what to do.

“I have not even thought about that at the moment,” she said.

“But if I get it then I will obviously sit down and consider what I will do.

“I am not saying I would go to the Olympics or anything like that. There is so much involved.

“I would sit down and see what I have put into it so far. There is so much involved in it I would have to decide whether it would be worth it at all.”

Her personal best for the marathon stands at 2:29.01 which she ran in the Flora London Marathon in 2005.

She returned to New York last year to explore the distance in a more relaxed frame of mind, finished 14th and obviously enjoyed the experience.

After winning a silver medal in the 1,500m at the world championships in Stuttgart in 1983, she won her first major gold medal in the 3,000m at the European championships in Helsinki the following year.

She won the 5,000m at the world championships in Gothenburg a year later and then back to back gold medals at the world cross-country championships in Marrakech in 1998 before completing an unique 10,000m/5,000m double at the European championships in Budapest the following year.