O’Sullivan slumps but Nic says no need to panic

SONIA O’SULLIVAN finished 15th of 16 finishers in the 1,500m at the Grand Prix in Madrid on Sunday night, but it was a run that was totally out of context and there is no need to panic.

That was the message from her partner and adviser Nic Bideau, yesterday, when he explained that a lot of the competitors were complaining of difficulty breathing.

Four runners, including Kelly Holmes, failed to finish, which was won by Suzy Favor Hamilton (USA) in 4:02.89 from Joanne Pavey (Great Britain), 4:03.91 and the Russian, Yuliya Kosenkova.

Rene Kalmer from South Africa, who finished second to Sonia O'Sullivan at the BUPA Cork City Sports two weeks earlier, finished fourth in 4:07.96. "I don't know what it was but a lot of athletes complained of having problems breathing," Bideau said. "A lot of athletes ran terrible including the Spanish athletes.

"Sonia was sick during the week all right but she just felt terrible after 300m. She has had trouble getting it together. Kelly Holmes just pulled out she was injured. The girl who was second to Sonia in Cork was fourth, so there was something wrong.

"She is definitely not right so we will just have to try and put it back together. She is in pretty good shape. You saw her in Cork and she looked pretty good and her training partner, Benita Johnson, won the 3,000m on Saturday night.

"She has won one world championships and it would be nice to win another one but it is not the main goal. We have got a lot of other things on our mind we have a couple of kids, I have a business to run and Sonia is not as hungry about everything. Only certain things get her excited. Certainly those Grand Prix races don't do much for her. She has got to enjoy the event. She enjoyed that race in Dublin that day. She got herself in the right frame of mind for that day.

Derval O'Rourke arrived back in Dublin last night with a badly swollen ankle but thrilled with her performances at the European U23 championships in Bydgoszcz where she broke her own national U23 record for a fourth time this year in the semi-finals of the 100m hurdles before going on to smash Susan Smith's old national senior record with a sensational 12.96 run for fourth place in what turned out to be a spectacular final.

"This has to be one of the greatest underage finals of all time," her coach, Jim Kilty, insisted. "I don't think we will have that many under 13 seconds again." He admitted that while he was confident that Cork athlete would run fast he did not think she was quite ready to run this quick so soon. At the BUPA Cork City Sports a couple of weeks ago she said she had yet to run the perfect race and promised that when she did she would run close to 12.95. "This would appear to be close enough to it," said Kilty. "She got a great start even a better start when they were called back. Her reaction time was 0.140 and that showed that she had the confidence and courage to go with it.

"In a sense I am very lucky with herself and Ciara Sheehy. Both of them have shown they can deliver on the big day. And it was the same with TJ Kerins. He moved from 14.90 to 13.55 and all that Derval is getting the benefit of all that I learned from TJ. It was great to see set a national record with a world class time.

"And if she can run that fast for 100m hurdles I an just wondering how fast she can really run for 100m flat. She has run 11.92 but this proves she is way faster than that." When he began coaching Derval O'Rourke and Ciara Sheehy they set targets of medals at the 2008 Olympics. Derval's time at the weekend gives her the A standard for the world championships in Paris in just over a month's time.