Sonia set for the long haul

SONIA O’SULLIVAN plans to join the medal contenders for the upcoming world championships in Paris when she lines up for a star-studded 5,000m at the Norwich Union Grand Prix in London tomorrow night and she revealed last evening that she will compete over the same distance at the Woodies DIY national championships in Morton Stadium on Sunday.

Originally the plan was to race 1,500m in the nationals but all that has changed as the former world champion gets down to the serious end of the business of preparing for the world championships which get under way in the Stade de France at Saint-Denis on August 23 with the heats of the 5,000m down for decision on August 26 and the final four days later.

All the reports from London indicate the 1995 world champion is training much better than her racing would suggest and she admitted yesterday that has been somewhat cautious on the track up to now.

“Training has been really good,” she said. “Up to now I have been training through my races because I felt there was work to be done. I have been trying to get the training done and do some work.

“But I am definitely ready now. Now I feel the training is done and I can rest up for the race and get the feeling to run,” she said.

“Up to now it has been difficult to get enthusiastic about my races. When you are not too sure how you are going to go - when you are not flying - you are always afraid that the pace is going to be too fast at the start and you will get lost early on.

“Now I feel much better about it. I know I am going to be able to keep up no matter what the pace is. Now I won’t be worried at the start. I’ll only have to think about the race.”

And she admitted she won’t have any difficulty getting excited when she goes to the line surrounded by some old, familiar faces. The field includes the Olympic champion, Gabriela Szabo, who confirmed her participation on Monday. The Romanian has races just twice this year and comes from her training camp in the Pyrenees for the event.

Olympic and world 10,000m champion, Derartu Tulu, is in there as is Zahra Ouaziz from Morocco who finished third in that memorable 5,000m in Gothenburg. The Kenyan challenge is headed by Edith Masai.

“About half of the best athletes in the world are in there so I don’t have a problem getting excited about it,” she said. “They are all there except some of the top Ethiopians and Russians who will be involved in their national championships over the weekend. With a field as strong as this you always know what to expect. Everyone has the world championships in mind right now.”

Last weekend she made a surprise trip to Bangor for the North Down Games but it did not work out well at all. She had been in Limerick for a check up and decided to fly from Shannon via Manchester to Belfast.

“It was supposed to be the quickest connection but it did not work out quite like that. I left Limerick at 11 am and did not arrive in Belfast until 8.30. It was a long day. But once I got there they held the race back for me and I was able to warm up.”

After tomorrow night’s race she will fly to Dublin on Saturday - one of the rare occasions when the whole family will travel together according to partner Nic - and they plan to go to the Robbie Williams Concert in the Phoenix Park that night.

“If there is anyone out there with tickets we would appreciate them,” she said.

Her decision to contest the 5,000m on Sunday comes as something of a surprise but will be a welcome one for the organisers as the second day of the championships, which gets under way at 10.30am, goes out live on TV.

“They will be able to see more of me,” she said. “Some of the girls ran in Heusden-Zolder last weekend, Breda Dennehy-Willis, Marie Davenport and Maria McCambridge, and I would expect they will all run again.”