O’Sullivan ready to take on runners in BUPA race

GILLIAN O’SULLIVAN, Ireland’s silver medallist from the world championships in Paris, will walk alongside the runners in the BUPA Great Ireland run in the Phoenix Park on Sunday week.

It is not the first time she has competed against runners - she has done it regularly in road races around Cork - but this is the first time she has attempted a race of this calibre when runners like Sonia O’Sullivan and Catherina McKiernan will be battling it out for glory.

“I have never competed in a running race as such but I have often used races in the Cork area for hard sessions,” she said. “I am looking forward to competing in the BUPA race.”

It has been a hectic and emotionally charged time for Gillian since she returned in a blaze of glory from Paris and it has also been very busy.

“In fact I still have not had time to watch a video of the race,” she said. “It was only during the past week that I began to relax again and obviously, since then, it has all begun to sink in. It was the first opportunity I got to just do nothing.”

But she won’t have that much time to relax. Next Monday it will be back to serious training and the build up to the Olympic Games in Athens will begin.

“People are already talking about an Olympic medal and I try to ignore all that,” she said. “I just want to get back training.

"Once the Calendar Congress is over we will be planning the schedule for next year but, basically, I will be competing in the Grand Prix races again in the lead up to the Olympic Games,” she said.

She admitted that there is bound to be a lot of hype leading up to the Olympics but she says she won’t be affected.

“I will be away quite a bit for warm weather training and altitude training so I won’t see what is being written or hear what is being said,” she said. “Anyway, you try to ignore all that and if training is going well you don’t really mind it. But I suppose the training is the easiest part of it.”

Robert Heffernan, who missed the world championships on account of injury, is back in fully training, and she will be rejoining him on training walks next week.

“His back is better and he is feeling no pain which is good,” she said. “He will also be wanting to get in a good winter’s training.”

Meanwhile, Sonia O’Sullivan continues her busy schedule at the weekend when she defends her title in Sunday’s BUPA Great North Run from Newcastle to South Shields.

Paula Radcliffe, a former winner and course record holder - Sonia missed her record by just 11 seconds last year - will be back in the line-up.

Newly crowned world 10,000m champion and reigning world half marathon champion, Berhane Adere, is included in the line-up this time along with the twice Olympic 10,000m champion, Derartu Tulu, and Susan Chepkemei of Kenya who is the world’s fastest-ever half marathoner.