O’Sullivan’s day of double celebration

IT WAS to be a day of celebration for Kerry’s Gillian O’Sullivan (Farranfore/Maine Valley) at the opening session of the indoor championships of Ireland.

Dame Mary Peters was on hand at the Odyssey Arena in Belfast to present her with the IAAF plaque to mark her world record for the 5,000m walk which she set at the nationals in Santry last summer.

But the celebrations took on a new dimension when she smashed the world record for indoor 3,000m with a sizzling walk of 11:35.53 that was all of five seconds faster than the old mark set by the Romanian, Claudia (Ivan) Stef, four years ago.