O'Sullivan achieves qualifying time in Sydney

Athletics : Sonia O'Sullivan was beaten into second place in today's Telstra Australia Commonwealth Games trials but achieved…

Athletics: Sonia O'Sullivan was beaten into second place in today's Telstra Australia Commonwealth Games trials but achieved the 5,000 metres qualifying time.

O'Sullivan was granted dual nationality nine days ago and cleared to represent hosts Australia at the Games next month, but she was beaten in Sydney by Eloise Wellings.

Wellings won comfortably in 15 minutes 28.72 seconds, while O'Sullivan shaded the qualifying standard of 15mins 45secs by just 0.74 seconds.

"I just scraped in and hopefully that will be enough to gain selection," said O'Sullivan.

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"It was the best I could do as I have had a lack of track training."

O'Sullivan, who set a personal best of 14:41.02 when winning the 2000 Olympic silver medal in Sydney, was delighted to set a qualifying time but admitted there was ample room for improvement.

"The weather wasn't too hot, although it was a little windy out there," she said, "but really what I need to do now is get in plenty of track work.

"I'm not too bothered with the time as I have been in this situation before. Now I just have to concentrate on my preparations on the track and it will come together."