O’Sullivan looking like the lean machine of old
All was calm when Sonia O’Sullivan marched onto the Meadowbank track with lofty goals in mind, writes Mark Woods. The Irishwoman was in her pomp, just a year away from claiming the world 5000 metres title.
Boundaries were there to be shoved aside. And having consulted the statistical annals ahead of an outing over 2000 metres, she sensed an opportunity knocked to deliver an historic performance. “There was no wind,” she recounts, almost two decades on. “I was feeling good when I got out there. Yvonne Murray was in the race, who I’d had plenty of battles with over the years. At half-way the split was very good, we were on pace and I thought: ‘you’ve got to go for it’. It was just one of those magic nights where everything worked.”
It secured a world record of 5:25.36 which remains unbroken. And at the age of 45, Cobh’s finest still looks every bit the lean mean running machine of old. Not quite, she laughs. Her outing in tomorrow’s Bupa Great Edinburgh Run is as much for enjoyment as to satiate an inner drive.
Now shuttling between her home in Melbourne and her native land, O’Sullivan will offer no threat over 10 miles to an elite field that includes the Scottish duo Susan Partridge and Freya Ross.
The target, she says with a smile, is to avoid personal disgrace. “I’ve gone through lots of phases, including to that point where I stopped myself and said: ‘you used to be really good at this’. Even when you’re not going for a championship or a record, you still want to run decent.”
Chris Thompson heads the men’s field in Edinburgh, just two weeks after coming 11th in a creditable marathon debut in London that was over-shadowed by his long-time foe Mo Farah.
Although it may hurt his medal hopes, Thompson hopes the Olympic champion is Glasgowbound this summer. “I know from races when he’s not been around that the atmosphere is just reduced significantly,” he said. “If he’s at Hampden, it would make the 10,000m extra special.”