O’Sullivan in election race for IAAF Athletes’ Commission

SONIA O’SULLIVAN has been nominated for election to the IAAF Athletes’ Commission by the Athletics Association of Ireland.

The election will be held at the IAAF Congress in Paris tomorrow.

Female athletes account for a quarter of the current commission, chaired by the double 1976 Olympic champion, Alberto Juantorena.

The membership includes world pole vault record-holder Sergei Bubka (Ukraine), Namibian sprinter Frankie Fredericks, Moses Kiptanui from Kenya, the former German star Ulrike Meyfarth, Patti Sue Plumer of the United States, and the great Jamaican sprinter, Don Quarrie.

O'Sullivan, whose collection includes two gold medals from the world cross-country championships and a third world championship gold from the 5,000m in Gothenburg as well as three European championship gold medals and her Olympic silver from Sydney would be a worthy member of the commission.

From 1993 to 1995 she was the leading female middle-distance runner in the world.

She won global acclaim for the manner in which she handled the controversy that surrounded the Chinese dominance of her events at the world championships in Stuttgart in 1993.

The previous year, she set five Irish records in 11 days after the bronze medal had been snatched from her in the last few strides of the 3,000m final at the Barcelona Olympics.

And in 1994, she became the first Irish woman to win to win a European title when she won the 3,000m in Helsinki, the first of her three European gold medals. The others came in the form of a 5,000m/10,000m double in Budapest four years later.

Election to the commission would be a huge boost for Sonia in the lead-up to her track assignment next week, when she contests the heats of the women's 5,000m at the world championships, with the final scheduled for Saturday week.

O'Sullivan will be one of three Irish candidates seeking election when the IAAF Congress gets underway tomorrow.

Al Guy, who has been a member of the Technical Committee since 1984, will be seeking election to that committee and is also among the candidates for the Council. The former double Olympic champion and multi world record-holder, Seb Coe, is another seeking election to the Council.

Nick Davis, former President of the Athletic Association of Ireland, is seeking election to the Cross-Country and Road Running Committee, of which the late Eddie Spillane was a member until his untimely death.

Other candidates include the former European champion Dave Bedford, nominated by Britain. There are 22 candidates for the 10 positions.

More than 220 national federations will have voting rights.