Gillian O'Sullivan to receive Hall of Fame Award
HALL OF FAME AWARD: Ireland's Gillian O'Sullivan with the silver medal she won in the Women's 20K Walk Final. Picture: Brendan Moran / SORTSFILE
Athletics Ireland has announced Gillian O'Sullivan will receive the Hall of Fame Award at the 123.ie National Athetics Awards which will be held on Wednesday November 20.
The Kerry native started her glittering career in 1994 and she represented Ireland at the European Championships, World Championships and Olympic Games in the 20km Race Walk.
O'Sullivan won silver in the 20km Walk at the World Championships in Paris in 2003, the first Irish athlete since 1995 to win a World Championship medal.
O'Sullivan, alongside Eamonn Coghlan, Sonia O'Sullivan, Olive Loughnane and Rob Heffernan, are part of an exclusive club of five making the podium at a World Athletics Outdoor Championships.
O'Sullivan highlights included a top 10 finish at the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000, a World Record for the 5000m walk in Dublin in 2002 (20:02.60) and a world best time at nationals over 3000m (11:35.34) in 2003 at the Odyssey Arena in Belfast.
O'Sullivans national walk records across 3000m, 5000m, 10000m and 20km still stand today.
In 2007, aged 30, O'Sullivan retired stating “To retire from competing was always going to be a huge decision for me but I have put a lot of thought into it, and I feel now is the best time to move on.
"Athletics has been so good to me, but it has got to the stage where with some of the problems I’ve had I didn’t feel I could get back to the heights I hit in 2002 and 2003 and to leave now I can be happy with everything I have achieved and not have any regrets”.
The nominations for the National Athletic Awards have been announced which will celebrate a highly successful year for Irish athletes across the season while also commemorating the volunteers who are the bedrock of the sport.
Ireland's relay teams set the marker for the season with World Relay gold in the Bahamas which set up a week to remember in Rome 2024 where Ciara Mageean, Rhasidat Adeleke, and the relay teams won European Championship medals. The Olympics in Paris saw Irish athletes performances across track and field added to the enthusiasm surrounding athletics in Ireland.
The award ceremony will take place at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Santry at 3pm.
- Fintan Dewhirst
- Oisin Joyce
- Elizabeth Ndudi
- Thomas Williams
- Rhasidat Adeleke
- Sarah Lavin
- Sharlene Mawdsley
- Israel Olatunde
- Cormac Dalton
- Efrem Gidey
- Nick Griggs
- Fionnuala McCormack
- Reece Ademola
- Eric Favors
- Kate O'Connor
- Nicola Tuthill
- Cathal Doyle
- Mark English
- Sarah Healy
- Ciara Mageean
- Mixed 4x400m Women’s 4x400m
- World U20 Men’s 4x400m
- U20 Men’s Cross Country
Other awards to be presented on the day include, Performance & Development Clubs of the Year, Services to Coaching, Lifetime Services to Athletics, Official of the Year, and many more.
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