Sonia aiming to fast–track a happy homecoming

SINCE her sensational victory as a 17 year old back in 1987, when she beat a star-studded field in the women’s 3,000m, Sonia O’Sullivan has been a star attraction at The Mardyke.

But today’s 1,500m takes on new significance for the Olympic silver medallist following her disappointing midweek run in Lausanne.

O’Sullivan ran 8:54.16 for ninth place in Tuesday night’s thunderstorm but that time will be of little significance if things go according to plan this evening. She had just arrived down at sea level from a month’s training at altitude in the Alpine resort of St. Moritz.

“After training at altitude you just don’t know what to expect,” she explained. “You can run well immediately or it can take some time. It is not obvious. It is more like a blood thing so it is nothing you can see.”

That’s why she is eager to get back on track before her home crowd, where she has never lost a race. And the field is strong enough to inspire a fast time.

Included are Fatiha Bqouf (Belgium), Lljana Culibirk (Croatia), Nadia Efentaki (Greece), Adrienne Herzog (The Netherlands), Mieke Geens, the Belgian 800m champion, Heide Jensen, the champion of Denmark, Rene Kalmer, who ran in the 3,000m on Tuesday night, Andrea Suldesova (Czech Republic).

Also in the field is the sensational Australian teenager, Georgie Clarke, who is battling her way back from injury and was with O’Sullivan at the training camp in St. Moritz.

Freda Davoren, after a series of impressive performances, is now ready for the qualifying standard for the world championships, according to her agent, 1984 Olympic javelin champion Tessa Sanderson who has a series of races lined up for her.

It will be another exciting homecoming for Derval O’Rourke, but she faces an enormous task in the 100m hurdles with three of her competitors under 13 seconds.

But she is on a roll at the moment. In four races she has broken the national U23 record three times. At the start of the season it stood at 13.38 and her runs to date have been 13.34, 13.41, 13.31 and, most recently in the European Cup in Finland, 13.11.

The qualifying standard for the world championships is 12.96 with the B standard at 13.11 but her immediate target is the European U23 championships.

She faces a terribly tough assignment this afternoon. Yolanda McCray (USA) has run 12.90 and Susanna Kallur (Sweden) has run 12.94.

“Being realistic the best she can hope for would be third place,” her coach Jim Kilty insisted. “But you never know. She is in superb form.”

Her training partner, Ciara Sheehy, goes in the women’s 200m and this is a very important race for her. She was in flying for early in the year but her hamstring went at the end of April and, just when she had come back, it went again in the middle of May.

She, too, faces a strong field that includes three English athletes, Lisa Miller, Abiodun Oyepitan and Melanie Purkiss as well as the Lithuanian 100m champion, Agne Visockiate, and Aliann Pompey of Guyana.

The men’s sprints promise much and feature Gary Ryan, the national 100m champion and fresh from his double in Genoa on Tuesday night. Dwight Thomas, the Jamaican champion at both 100m and 200m, heads the field, joined by another Jamaican, Winston Smith, Anson Henry from Canada and Tyrone Edgar from England.

The national 200m champion, Paul Brizzel, and Mark Howard join Gary Ryan to reinforce the Irish challenge.

The starting time has been brought forward to 12 noon to facilitate the pole vault as a safety measure.