Atlanta revisited for sad Sonia

SONIA O’SULLIVAN spent yesterday in the company of her daughters, Ciara and Sophie as she tried to come to terms with her disastrous performance in the final of the women’s 5,000m at the World Championships in Paris.

“It happened and she just does not know why it happened,” her father, John, said. “She looked so good on Tuesday evening and she said she trained well all week.

“Unfortunately, it just did not happen for her on the night.

“She will discuss the race with her coach, Alan Storey, on Tuesday night. They will all have their opinions on it but, at the end of the day, her next race will decide what is going to happen,” he said.

She threw off her spikes and ran away from the track at the Stade de France after she trailed in a remote last on Saturday evening, vaulting over the three foot high walls that zig-zagged the mixed zone in her stockinged feet to evade any questions.

“She obviously needed to talk to Nic (Bideau) at that time,” Irish coach Bernie O’Callaghan said. “I spoke to her coach, Alan Storey, who said it appeared to be similar to what happened before in Atlanta and they never found out why.”

Yesterday she was back home in London and one could not help feeling that the future of one of the most powerful figures in female athletics was very much in doubt.

After 13 years competing at the highest level, she could only watch from the crown of the bend as Tirunesh Dibaba, an 18 year old Ethiopian, heralded the arrival of another new generation of athletes by cheekily taking the title in 14:51.72 on Saturday evening.

O’Sullivan trailed in last of the 15 strong field in a dismally poor time of 15:36.62.

Her partner and confidant, Nic Bideau, back in Paris yesterday with his athletes, admitted the race might have been just a bridge too far for Sonia.

“She just did not have it last night,” he said.

For a brief moment, Yelena Zadorozhnaya appeared as if she might shake things up but a 70.6 sec first lap was never going to do any damage.

And there was worse to come in the form of a 75.4 sec second lap and then a pedestrian 77.67 sec third lap with the Irish woman, tucked away in seventh place.

Eventually it was Gabriela Szabo who went to the front and led them through the first kilometre in a modest 3:04.25. She covered the second kilometre in 3:05 with O’Sullivan at the back of the pack.

On the next lap (75.6 sec) she sprinted from the back to join Szabo in the lead but her appearance at the front was brief and suddenly, just 200m, the race was all over for her and one was left wondering if this may be the beginning of the end of a great career. Time will tell