Sonia: I don’t feel cheated
In the interim, the Olympic 5,000m gold medallist has been exonerated but the cloud of suspicion will remain for some time at least.
It will be remembered how the diminutive Romanian snatched the gold medal from the Irish woman in a flying finish in Sydney but Sonia, who was in Cork yesterday to launch the BUPA Ireland Cork City Sports scheduled for The Mardyke on July 5, is happy with her silver and does not dwell on the past. In fact she is looking forward to next year's Olympic Games in Athens.
Back in 1993, she suffered at the hands of the Chinese athletes who arrived in Stuttgart for the world championships and left under a cloud of suspicion that has never really lifted. Then she finished fourth behind three of them in the 3,000m final but took them on again and snatched a silver medal in an enthralling 1,500m final.
After all the furore that surrounded the famous Chinese takeaway she refused to be drawn into the controversy.
And it was clear at yesterday morning's City Sports launch in the plush surroundings of the Mardyke Arena that she won't be pointing the finger at anyone and has absolutely no regrets.
"No matter what, I did not win the race in Sydney," she said. "What happens now doesn't change history. You just have to move on. You can't go back and change things that have already happened. You are not going to run the race again so you just move on and do what is next."
She plans to add the gold medal to her Olympic silver in Athens next year.
Her build-up will begin at the world championships in Paris at the end of August when she will contest the 5,000m.
Cork City Sports on July 5 will be an important landmark in the lead up to the Paris extravaganza. O'Sullivan will make her seasonal debut on the track in Lausanne four days earlier over her favourite distance the 3,000m and after that it will be the 1,500m in Cork as part of her speed work for the 5,000m.
"I am going to concentrate on the 5,000m for the world championships so I need to run some 1,500s and 3,000s and get myself running fast again," she said.
She had her first race back after injury in Manchester on Monday when she finished third to the two Ethiopians, Berhane Adere and double Olympic champion Derartu Tulu, ahead of a quality field over 10k and she was delighted with that performance.
"I just wanted to go in there and try my best," she said pointing out that it was not about beating anyone. "I was not really sure how it would turn out. I wanted to run as hard as I could and see how fit I was. I ran exactly what I knew I could run. Somebody asked me that morning what I would run and I said 32 minutes.
"It was exactly what I knew I could do and it is great to have the confirmation and the reassurance that I knew what kind of shape I was in and to come away without any aches or pains. I can just get out there now and train hard.
"I had no twinges or anything. We went for a 20 minute warm down and when we got back home we ran for 40 minutes and everything was good."
She no longer has treatment. She was in Limerick recently but it was only for a general check up.
She will run the Women's mini marathon in Dublin on Monday and after that it will be back to training once again. She will go away for a month's altitude training in the Alpine resort of St Moritz. She trained at altitude on Laguna Mountain in California after coming off injury.
"We went over to Switzerland last year just to have a look and see if it would be good for training and it seems really good track, trails, it has everything," she said. "It doubles your fitness. You get twice as fit in less time by training at altitude."
She has not abandoned her marathon plans entirely but she admitted New York had caused her do a reappraisal of her plans for the next couple of years.
"That was the reason to do it," she said. "I wanted to find out if I wanted to longer or shorter. But the marathon is put on hold."
She is looking forward to Cork City Sports and running on the new track at the Mardyke where she has turned in some of her best performances.
Two weeks work will complete the laying of the track which will complete a magnificent facility.
City Sports chairman Dick Hodgins said they were quite pleased that so many winners from last year had applied to them for places in this year's event which will again incorporate a one per event international match between Ireland and England.
He said that last year 35 nations were represented and so far this year they had applications from 30 nations.
"You can expect well in excess of that on the day. Unfortunately we are not going to accommodate everyone but we will be looking forward to having the cream of Irish athletics on parade."
And among them will be Freda Davoren from UCC AC, who missed last year's event through injury and is back in full flight.
She is scheduled to compete in Germany next week and is hoping for confirmation from Hengelo, but her quest for a qualifying standard for the world championships could come to a successful conclusion at The Mardyke on July 5 when she will line up alongside O'Sullivan in the 1,500m.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
