Athletics: Just one Athens event for Sonia

SONIA O’SULLIVAN has confirmed she plans to run just one event in August’s Olympic Games in Athens.

In previous games the Cobh athlete has kept her options open by declaring her entry for a number of different long-distance events.

But with six months left to go before the games in Greece, the Melbourne-based athlete has decided to focus all her attentions on the 5000 metres race, an event in which she won a silver medal at the last Olympics in Sydney.

"At this stage I'm just looking at the 5,000m for the Olympics," said the mum of two at the Irish Examiner Junior Sports Awards in Dublin.

"It's too much of a distraction if you try and run other events and it's better if you run just one. It's been a slight hindrance in the past at events when everyone's asking you all the time what you're races you're going to run in, whether you've decided yet or so on. It's one less question to answer."

O'Sullivan will run the BUPA Great Irish run next week in the Phoenix Park, a race that marks here return to the competition after a hard winter of endurance training.

"I have my winter training all over me now the strength and endurance work and I'm looking forward to getting on with the real business I'm confident that the work I've done so far has gone how I've wanted it to.

"Things have been going extremely well out in Australia and I'm over here for a while now which is also a huge help.

"By the time I get back to Melbourne, we'll be heading into the summer and then the serious work will start. The time will go really fast from then until August, I'll have to get on the track, compete in a few races and before I know it, it will be time to go to Athens."

In between all this, O'Sullivan has a week of altitude training in the US, which should help her deal with the warm conditions she's bound to endure once she gets to Athens.

"We do experience quite a few hot days in Australia but Melbourne is well known for its rain so it's not exactly paradise over there," she said.

"From what we've been told it's going to be quite hot in Athens and I've had a lot of experience of working the heat before so that shouldn't be a huge issue. I'm not really afraid of it but at the same time I have to be prepared for it."

As for the Irish Examiner Junior Sports Awards, of which O'Sullivan was a past winner, the athlete spoke of the affect the prize had on her early career.

"To be singled out above all your peers is special, particularly at a young age. Now, it's great to look back and see how all the past winners have done.

"For the youngsters to see that is very important and it must give them great inspiration for the future. They know that if they work hard and continue to follow their dreams, they can become some of the best sports people in the world."