Controlled, confident Sonia cruises into final

SONIA O’SULLIVAN raced into medal contention at the world championships in Paris last evening when she turned in one of her most confident performances in recent years to finish second in her heat of the women’s 5,000m in 14 mins 55.50 secs — her fastest time since the London last year.

he race was won by the three-time European junior champion, Elvan Abeylegesse from Turkey (who was previously known as Elvan Can and/or Hewan Abeye when in Ethiopia), in 14:54.95 after she had stolen a march earlier.

But one could not but be impressed by the manner in which O'Sullivan, the Olympic silver medallist, after her usual duel with Gabriela Szabo, sprinted past the gold medal favourite, Berhane Adere, over the final 200m leaving the newly crowned 10,000m champion a fading third.