Cullen can be the golden girl
Treacy, a member of the Irish team that won the silver medals at the world championships in Limerick in 1979, has coached the Sligo woman since she went to Providence on a scholarship.
Last year Cullen had the bronze medal snatched from her in the last few strides of the European championships in Brussels but that won’t happen again, according to Treacy.
“She’s in better shape than last year, there’s no doubt about that,” he said. “Everything has gone perfectly since the beginning of June in terms of training and she has been very deliberate and very patient with her preparations.”
After Brussels last year she continued to build on her good form when she turned to the indoor circuit and ran sensational times for 3,000m (8:43.74) and 5,000m (15:18.34) before winning the bronze medal at the 3,000m at the European indoor championships.
Then came health problems – a stress fracture in her hip paled into insignificance when a potentially life threatening growth was discovered on her skull.
“Her health problems have been well documented but she dealt with them fantastically,” Treacy said. “It was a nerve wracking time for Mary and for the family but she handled it very, very well.
“The hip injury was a blessing in disguise because she was forced to go ahead with the surgery and forced to be aggressive about it. If she left it there was a danger it would keep growing and so postponing surgery was not worth the risk.
“Berlin (world championships) was immediately out of the picture – in my mind certainly it was – but she probably had to get over it in her own way.
“At the end of the day she was in shape to go to Berlin. The weekend of Berlin she ran 26 minutes for five miles on the road in 90 degrees of heat in Rhode Island. That weekend she could have run about 15:20 for 5k but that would not have got her out of the heats. She did not want to go to Berlin and run poorly.”
Her goal after the European indoor championships in Turin was to make the final of the 5,000m in Berlin in the 5,000m and when that was not going to happen she targeted the European cross-country championships and her preparations have been meticulous.
“She’s that type of person,” Treacy said. “She is a student of the sport, which I love, she knows everything and anything about everybody which is great because she is not going to be caught by surprise by anyone out there on Sunday – or ever – because she knows more about her opponents than anyone I have ever come across.
“The mud won’t bother her. I think Kilbeggan (the inter-counties championships) gave her a great confidence boost as far as mud is concerned. She felt like she was gliding over it. She has done all her workouts – all her hard runs – on grass at the racecourse in Sligo so she has learned to deal with that and she has become very confident on it.”
He admitted it won’t be easy to win the gold medal tomorrow. With the defending champion, Hilda Kibet out of it, the two Portuguese runners, who won the silver and bronze medals last year, Jessica Augusto and Ines Monteiro, are hoping to go one better and they also have Dulce Felix, who has set a number of personal bests this year, and Ana Dias who have medal potential as well.
With Kibet and the 2008 champion, Marta Dominguez out, the field includes just two former winners, Britain’s Hayley Yelling (2004) and Ukranian Tetyana Holovchenko (2006) and they will be joined by the woman who has won most medals in the history of the event, Olivera Jevtic (Serbia), who was third in 1997, ’98, ’99, ’00 and ’06.
He feels that whatever she gets out of this race it will be a stepping stone to greater things.
“The goal after this will be the European track and field championships in Barcelona next summer,” he said. “But we’re not looking beyond Sunday.
” One hundred per cent effort will go into this race and we’ll evaluate everything at that stage and then plan ahead for the next six to eight months.”
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