Recovered O’Sullivan to take on Radcliffe in Hyde Park

FORGET Paris and last Sunday’s race in Richmond, Sonia O’Sullivan is ready to go head to head with Paula Radcliffe and the double Olympic champion, Derartu Tulu, in Hyde Park next Sunday.

Her partner, Nic Bideau, revealed yesterday that Sonia was sick on the day of the 5,000m final at the world championships but put it down to nerves. That night and for two days previously she was very sick and did not get back to serious training until last Thursday.

On Sunday she finished second to Radcliffe in the Richmond 10k in London but did not take the race seriously. It will be different, however, in Hyde Park where she set a course record last year.

“By the end of October people won’t be writing Sonia off, I can promise you,” Nic insisted looking towards next weekend’s race followed by the Great South Run in Bournemouth, the Great Ireland Run in Dublin and, possibly, a return to Newcastle for a defence of her title in the Great North Run.

“She did not take last Sunday’s race seriously. She trained hard on Saturday and ran for over an hour before the race,’” Nic explained. “She went out and finished second. But she will be serious next week. She is determined to get Paris out of her system and this is sort of event she feels she can do it.

“She knows that if she is at her best she can still win unless someone comes out and runs 14:20. All through peoples lives and careers you have days where things don’t go right and, unfortunately, it happened to Sonia in Atlanta and it happened to her in Paris. But generally, when things go right for Sonia in the championships she wins medals and does really well all the time.

“Next Sunday she will run the 5k in Hyde Park and it will be a proper race, not like Sunday. Sonia is going to be right in there with the best. She ran 14:56 in that race last year and I can’t see any reason why she won’t repeat that and it will be a proper race, not like Sunday. Sonia is going to be right in there with the best. She ran 14:56 in that race last year and I can’t see any reason why she won’t repeat that.

He said she did not feel very good on the morning of the race or at lunch but she just kept telling herself it was just nerves.

“I was sick myself early on during the week but I thought I was over it by the time she turned up and she would be OK. Afterwards the kids are sick and one of my other guys, Adrian Blincoe from New Zealand, is sick. It just happened at the wrong time for us.”