Sonia excited by tough 5000m heat
This evening (6.27pm) the former world 5,000m champion will line up alongside the double-seeking Adere in the second and arguably the most difficult heat of the women's 5,000m at Stade de France, in what will be her first appearance in those championships since Athens in 1997 when, as defending champion, she was sensationally eliminated in the heats.
She did not arrive here in Paris until yesterday evening, but when she did she was beaming with enthusiasm having watched the first two days of competition back in London.
"It looks very good," she said. "I watched the final of the women's 10,000 on Saturday and Adere was very impressive. I must admit I got excited."
What she saw was the most competitive women's 10,000m final in the history of the championships. Adere's winning time 30mins 04.18secs catapulted her into third place on the all-time list. Only the Chinese athlete, Wang Junxia (29:31.78) and Paula Radcliffe, who ran 30:01.09 to win the European title in Munich last year, have run faster.
She goes into the 5,000m as the world leader in that event for the year, also having just missed Jiang Bo's world record by one second when she ran 14:29.32 at the Bislett Games in Oslo at the end of June.
With the first five in each of two heats to qualify for Saturday's final along with the five fastest losers, Sonia O'Sullivan will know exactly what she has to do when she goes to the line after watching the first heat.
But, one thing is for certain, they won't be hanging around in that first heat where the line-up includes Yingie Sun, who inflicted so much damage on Saturday night's 10,000m field. Like most of the athletes who venture outside of China, she has pedigree.
Although she comes from the Liaoning province, she is not a member of Ma Junren's notorious army of runners. In fact, she was rejected by the controversial coach some years ago who said she had no talent.
She has a most unusual style. She holds her hands by her side, at times hardly moving them at all, and lets her legs do the running. She enjoys sponsorship from Chinese Railways and many claim she runs like an express train.
Sonia O'Sullivan will be renewing rivalry with her old sparring partner, Gabriela Szabo, when she goes to the line this evening. The Olympic champion won the 3,000m in Zurich in which Sonia finished second the week before last.
She is one of seven athletes in the field who have run faster than the Irish woman this year over 5,000m but that should not trouble Sonia unduly. In fact one would expect it to work in her favour should it come down to a place among the fastest losers.
Apart from Adere and Szabo whose best this year is 14:41.35, she will have the Russian Yelena Zadorozhnaya (14:51.61) who has been in flying form this season, Zhor El Kamch from Morocco (14:42.53), the Kenyan Isabella Ochichi (14:52.33), Irina Mikitenko from Germany (14:56.64) and Xing Huina from China (15:00.02) to contend with.
"I feel I am coming around at this stage. Things seem to be going in the right direction," she said.
"I was delighted with my run in Zurich. I really felt good after that. Training has been going very well. I had a run this morning before leaving and I am really looking forward to the championships and getting out there to run. I should be able to get a good run out."
Alan Storey, Sonia O'Sullivan's coach, who is out here as UK Athletics' Technical Director for distance running, was impressed with he saw from Adere on Saturday night and admitted that even if Paula Radcliffe was here she would have needed to be near world record form to win the gold medal in that particular contest.
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