Nic: Sonia to easily make 5,000m final

SONIA O’SULLIVAN arrives here tomorrow full of confidence and ready to produce her best performances of the year, according to partner Nic Bideau yesterday.

The Australian predicts the Sydney silver medallist will have no difficulty in making Monday night’s final of the 5,000m.

O’Sullivan who finalised her preparations in Madrid last week, will not be joining the other members of the Irish Olympic team at the Athletes’ Village but will stay at an undisclosed location.

“She is in good form. She trained hard here in London yesterday and she had a couple of good track sessions in Madrid ­ I would say the best sessions she has done all year,” Bideau, who oversaw her training in the absence of coach Alan Storey.

“She is ready to run. She’ll run the best race of the year in Athens. I don’t think qualification is going to be a problem. She’ll get to the final.

“If she runs like she did in Zurich ­ and I think she’ll run better than that ­ she’ll get to the final and then she always runs good in green.”

When she lines up to race the ambience will be familiar ­ this is her fourth Olympics ­ but the faces around her have changed enormously.

The only recognisable face from her Australian success will be that of Irina Mikitenko of Germany, who was fifth.

O’Sullivan faces a new generation of threatening talents, most notably the Dibaba sisters from Ethiopia ­ Tirunesh who won the world title in Paris a year ago, and her older sister, Ejegayehu. They posted two of the top fastest times in the world this year behind Elvan Abeylegesse of Turkey when she set her new world for 5,000m at 14:24.68 in Bergen in May.

That night the Dibaba sisters ran 14:30.88 and 14:32.74, respectively. The only other athlete to better those times this year was Paula Radcliffe on her solo crusade at the European Cup in Bydgoszcz in June when she ran 14:29.11.

O’Sullivan will certainly recognise Martha Dominguez who stripped her of her 5,000m title in Munich two years ago. Maria McCambridge will complete the Irish contingent in the heats of the 5,000m which will be decided at the end of Friday night’s track and field programme.