O’Sullivan and McKiernan set to battle it out again

SONIA O’SULLIVAN and Catherina McKiernan renew rivalry in the Phoenix Park tomorrow morning in the Great BUPA Ireland Run which has attracted 3,000 entries and teams from seven nations.

Last year, O’Sullivan was a decisive winner when McKiernan was just returning to top flight running and a couple of months later they joined forces to help the Irish team to the silver medals at the European cross-country championships in Edinburgh.

McKiernan was disappointed with her performance at the recent world cross-country championships in Brussels where she did do justice to her herself and she could be about to turn the tables on O’Sullivan tomorrow and boost her confidence in advance of her bid for an Olympic qualifying standard at 10,000m.

In October, O’Sullivan was at the end of her track season when she won this 10k road race in 32:24 with McKiernan second in 33:04.

Given the year that is in it, both would be expected to better those times.

O’Sullivan, who holds every Irish record from 800m to 10,000m, has a personal best of 30:47 for 10k while McKiernan, who made a sensational transition to marathon running some years ago, has run 31:08.

With most of Ireland’s leading long and middle-distance men preparing for marathon assignments or away training, Craig Mottram, the Australian champion, will be the raging hot favourite to retain the men’s title.

He was the first non-African finisher in both the short course (9th) and long course (13th) races at the world cross-country championships in Brussels the weekend before last. He holds the Australian records for both the 3,000m and 5,000m and his father, Brian, played professional football for Wimbledon FC.

The challengers will include the Ukranian cross-country champion, Andrej Naumov, Louis Novo (Portugal) who was fourth in the world championships marathon in Seville in 1999, former European cross-country champion Alexander Sitkovsky (Ukraine), John Mayock (Great Britain), who won the great BUPA Ireland Run when it was held in Loughrea, Ivan Galan (Spain) and Glen Stewart (Scotland).

The Irish challenge will be spearheaded by Dermot Donnelly who was runner-up to Seamus Power in the national inter-clubs cross-country championships, Pauric McKinney, runner-up in last year’s national marathon, and Conor McGee, who finished 10th in the national cross-country championships.

The women’s field includes Elena Fadeeva (Ukraine), a 1:59 800m runner who transferred to the marathon to win in Alabama, Austria, twice in Mainz, Germany, and she was Ukranian cross-country champion last year, Analia Rosa (Portugal), who finished a few places behind McKiernan in the world cross-country championships in Brussels, two Spaniards, Tina Maria Ramos and Marta Fernandez de Castro, and Jenny McClague of Britain.

The international teams will be comprised of both men and women and the countries involved are Ireland, Australia, Britain, Ukraine, Portugal, Spain and Scotland.