Defar the star as Ethiopia gets gold
Then she had the horrible task of running past the Ethiopians as they celebrated Meseret Defar’s gold medal to complete the last lap and probably her final race at this level.
She was competing in her fourth Olympics and admitted it would be her last after she finished out the race, cheered on by the crowds in the stands and waving to the Irish fans.
Last night it was hellish from the start.
She was in the middle of the front row as the whole field jogged the first 200m in over 40 seconds.
Then, when Yingjie Sun went to the front and the pace quickened, the Irish legend suddenly dropped from second to second last in the blink of an eye.
From there on it was too difficult to watch. With 10 laps to go she had dropped back to last place, losing 40 metres on the pack in half a lap.
Up front, the race began in earnest with the two Chinese runners, Sun and Huina Xing, injecting a 67.57 lap into the proceedings.
Sun took them through 1,000m in 3:12.26 and 2,000m in 6:05.57 and O’Sullivan was watching from afar when the world record-holder, Elvan Abeylegesse (Turkey), took them through 3,000m in 8:58.23.
Isabella Ochichi led at 4,000m in 11:47.76, tracked by the Ethiopians and, as they set about deciding the destination of the medals, they had the Cobh woman in their sights.
They closed up with two laps remaining and then overtook her on the penultimate lap when five runners flashed past. Two more would pass her in the finishing straight and all seven had finished their race when she set out on her final lap.
Meseret Defar, a 20-year-old from Addis Ababa, eventually grabbed the gold medal in 14:45.65 from the Kenyan, Isabella Ochichi, 14:48.19, with the world champion, Tikrunesh Dibaba, who became the youngest ever winner of a world title last year, taking bronze in 14:51.83.
O’Sullivan ended her Olympic career in 14th place in 16:20.90, while Edith Masai did not finish.
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