Hendricken aims to put record straight in Golden League

GERALDINE HENDRICKEN will end her season in whirlwind fashion taking in the Golden League meetings in Brussels on August 30 and Berlin on September 6 before rounding things off in Rieti two days later.

The Carlow athlete was bitterly disappointed with her performance in the heats of the women’s 1,500m last week failing qualify behind the eventual gold medallist, Sureyya Ayhan of Turkey.

Afterwards she felt she might not be considered by the organisers of the Grand Prix meetings on foot of this performance but, even at that point, it was clear that the run in question was out of context and best forgotten and yesterday she was back on course again after some good training sessions back home and a talk with Ray Flynn.

“It would appear as if I will be able to get into Brussels, Berlin and Rieti,” she said. “Ray will be talking to meet organisers at Zurich on Friday night and hopefully he can confirm this.”

She has already tasted Grand Prix and Golden League competition in Lausanne and Monaco. In Monaco she finished 8th in 4:03.18 and Sonia O’Sullivan is the only other Irish woman to run faster than that. “I am looking forward to running again and putting Munich behind me. I’ve been talking to Charlie Breagy and I will probably run in the Downtown 5k in Providence on September 22.”

Meanwhile Mark Carroll has decided against running in the 10,000m in Brussels tomorrow week. After a promising performance in the final of the men’s 5,000m in Munich on Sunday, he will make his marathon debut in New York on November 3 and much of his training since knee surgery has been geared towards this: “I have had a couple of easy days but by the end of the week I will be back in full training. I have to get the mileage up again. I will be doing longer, faster runs and a lot of long reps.”

Sonia O’Sullivan will be back in the familiar surroundings of the Golden League in Zurich tomorrow night when she drops back to her favourite event, the 3,000m, to renew rivalry with her old foe, Gabriela Szabo.

While she competed in the Grand Prix meeting in Eugene early in the season, this will be the Irish woman’s first Golden League meet of the season and, while the early entry list does not include the newly crowned European 5,000m champion, Marta Dominguez of Spain, it is likely she will be added to list some time today.

The last time Sonia O’Sullivan and Gabriela Szabo crossed paths was in the final of the 5,000m at the Olympic Games in Sydney. Szabo, who won the 1,500m title at the world championships in Edmonton last year, obviously thought her best chance of a gold medal in Munich was in the 1,500m but she could not catch surprise winner, Sureyya Ayhan of Turkey, in the finishing straight and the European title remains the only title she has not won.