O’Sullivan takes Cork in her stride

SONIA O’SULLIVAN took another step along the now familiar path to major championship and Olympic engagements when she paraded her talents once again at the Mardyke on Saturday, and as they gave her the traditional send-off, she responded with an emphatic if not spectacular 5,000m victory in 15:15.95.

While the winning time may have been modest it came off a slow early pace and the true merit of the performance can be measured in a 65.7 sec final lap at the end of four merciless laps that literally destroyed the field.

Alena Samokhvalova of Russia crossed the line some 18 seconds behind the Olympic silver medallist while Maria McCambridge, who shared in the early pace, was a further 17 seconds behind - and they all lost the time over those last four laps.