O'Sullivan loses appetite for marathon

Sonia O'Sullivan admitted her appetite for marathons has disappeared after a disappointing performance in the New York City Marathon.

After struggling across the finishing line in 12th position and clocking a slow time of two hours 32 minutes and six seconds, O'Sullivan said she was not planning another marathon.

Ireland's Olympic 5000 metres silver medallist was strongly tipped in her first serious attempt at the distance to challenge for top honours in the 30,000-strong event.

But O'Sullivan had no answer to the skills and patience of eventual winner Joyce Chepchumba who broke all of her rivals at 22 miles and won in 2:25:56.

Beaten into third place by O'Sullivan in last month's BUPA Great North Run, Chepchumba showed how lethal she is over twice the Tyneside half marathon distance where O'Sullivan ran a world leading time for the year of 1:07:19.

"My legs were getting stiff as I'm not used to running that slow, even when training," said O'Sullivan, heeding advice she should not go off too quickly.

"I suppose inexperience did come into it," she added.

"Now I'm thinking I should have gone off and run my own race. With hindsight, knowing what pace I can run at, I should have gone off much quicker."

There were even greater celebrations for Chepchumba's manager Volker Wagner.

The German saw another of his stars Rodgers Rop take the men's title in 2;8:17, a clean sweep for Kenya seeing Christopher Chevoiboch second and Laban Kipkemboi third.