O’Sullivan launches Olympic Odyssey

GILLIAN O’SULLIVAN launched her sensational season at the Irish Indoor Championships in the Odyssey Arena, Belfast last February and she will be hoping for more of the same when she returns there in less than two months to launch her the build-up to the Olympics.

The Athletic Association of Ireland and the Northern Ireland Athletic Federation will join forces again to promote another rare All-Ireland event, with the world championships silver medallist and her fellow Olympians in action.

They include Paul Brizzel, who qualified for Athens by posting an A standard in the 200m at the World Championships in Paris in August, as well as Belfast man, Paul McKee, who won a bronze medal in the 400m at the World Indoor Championships in Birmingham last March.

Ireland’s new hurdling sensation, Cork girl Derval O’Rourke, will also be in action on a programme generously sponsored by River Rock, The Sports Council for Northern Ireland, The Northern Ireland Events Company and Belfast City Council.

But last season’s sensation of the championships, race walker Gillian O’Sullivan, will return as the star attraction this time around.

It was in the very first event that she set her sensational world record for the 3,000m walk, knocking all of five seconds off the old mark held by Romania’s Claudia Steff, taking the title in 11 mins 35.34 secs.

The performance may have been spectacular by the manner in which it was fashioned but it was not a total surprise to those who had watched her set the world record for 5,000m on the track at the National Senior Championships in Santry the previous summer.

It marked the start of a season of amazing consistency.

Two weeks later Gillian went to Mexico to win the first 20k walk on the inaugural Grand Prix of Race Walking in Tijuana.

She would go on to claim the overall Grand Prix title along with her silver medal at the world championships in Paris, where she became the second Irish woman to achieve a podium finish at a world championships, after Sonia O’Sullivan.

Paul Brizzel has developed into a formidable sprinter and highlighted his continued progress in Paris while Paul McKee who dominates the remaining sprint - the 400m - with a host of Irish 400m runners led by the talented young Leixlip lad, David

McCarthy, breathing down his neck - will be anxious to get his campaign off to the perfect start.

McCarthy, who was fifth behind McKee in the world indoors in Birmingham, has improved throughout the year.

The World Championships have been brought forward by a year and will be held in Budapest in this coming March so that will add an extra dimension to the Odyssey experience.

Mervyn Elder, Chairman of the Northern Ireland Events Company, speaking at yesterday’s launch in Belfast, said the company was delighted to support an event which provided local athletes with an opportunity

to compete with the best from throughout Ireland on the state of the art indoor track.

Professor Eric Saunders, OBE, from the Sports Council of Northern Ireland, said it was great to see some of the Sports Counciol’s Lottery Funded Athletes competing at this level.

“The competition comes at an opportune time as we prepare for the Athens 2004 Olympic Games,” he said.

In addition to the senior championships, the organisers will hold special age group events for 13, 14 and 15 year olds on both days before the senior programme gets under way.

Tickets for what could be a sell-out event, went on sale yesterday.