Irish team await Sonia’s distance decision

IRELAND will have just one team each in the men’s and women’s events at the world cross-country championships in Brussels next month and, while it has been more or less decided that the men will compete in the long course race, the women’s distance will depend on what Sonia O’Sullivan wants.

In 1998 Sonia O’Sullivan came back from a spell in the doldrums to win the long and short course races back to back at the world championships in Marrakech and, later that year, went on to an historic double at the European track and field championships in Budapest. Since the European championships in Edinburgh there has been a lot of speculation as to which event would be most suited to the current Irish women’s team, but it now seems certain that it will depend on what Sonia wants.

“It would be correct to say that,” Patsy McGonagle, who has been closer to the athletes than anyone else in recent years, admitted yesterday. “The fact of the matter is that we would be swayed by Sonia’s wishes.”

And AAI’s High Performance Director, Elaine Fitzgerald, confirmed yesterday that Sonia O’Sullivan will be back in Ireland in March. “She will be in Ireland in early March,” she said. “She goes to the US to train for a time and will then base herself in London.”

The teams for the world championships will be named after the national inter-club championships which will be run on Roscommon Racecourse on Sunday week.

Cathal Lombard is unlikely to be available as he is training in South Africa and, while he plans a short Irish visit, it will only be en route to Florida where he will train with his Leevale clubmate, Mark Carroll. He will train at altitude in Albuquerque and plans a shot at the Olympic qualifying standard for 10,000m at Carlsbad.

Maria McCambridge could have a decision to make in advance of the world championships as well. She qualified for the world indoor championships in Budapest when finishing third at the AAA championships in Sheffield at the weekend but, on current form, she would be an invaluable asset to the cross-country team. She will definitely go to Budapest.

And the collective performances in Sheffield over the weekend adds a new dimension to the All-Ireland Indoor Championships at the Odyssey Arena in Belfast next weekend.

“It is going to be pretty exciting all right,” Elaine Fitzgerald insisted. “In some events we will have a number of athletes going for two places. The men’s 200m and 400m events are going to be very interesting.

James Nolan had intended coming back from South Africa for the 1,500m, but he has had to delay his return on account of a tummy bug. He ran an excellent 3,000m at altitude recently and will definitely be ready for the world indoor championships.

Erin Kinnear, the former Irish schools champion now on scholarship in the USA, set a new Irish indoor pole vault record at 3.75m in Baton Rouge last week. She will be absent from next weekend’s championships, but the women’s pole vault will still be a big attraction due to the involvement of Zoe Brown from Belfast who represents GB and has twice cleared 4.21m. She won the AAA title at the weekend and will be odds-on favourite to complete the double next weekend when she defends her All-Ireland title.

Meanwhile, the Kit Kat Munster schools cross-country championships will once again bring some of the country’s best athletes to St. Augustine’s College, Dungarvan, on Saturday.