O'Sullivan rules out 10,000m run in Athens

Sonia O'Sullivan has ruled out a tilt at the 10,000 metres in Athens and will instead focus on an Olympic 5,000 metres gold medal…

Sonia O'Sullivan has ruled out a tilt at the 10,000 metres in Athens and will instead focus on an Olympic 5,000 metres gold medal rather than race over double that distance.

O'Sullivan was a superb winner of yesterday's BUPA Great Manchester Run where she easily outsprinted last summer's World 10,000m gold medallist, Berhane Adere.

Her victory in the 10 kilometres road race indicated that she is in her best shape for a long time and came only a few weeks after a convincing 5,000m track victory in the United States.

O'Sullivan defeated Ethiopian Adere, last year's Manchester champion, with a stunning burst of finishing speed in the last 150m, but is staying with 5,000m for the summer.

READ MORE

"I am definitely not doing the 10,000m in Athens," said O'Sullivan who led home six world class athletes until Liz Yelling clinched the top British position when seventh in a personal best 33 minutes one second.

O'Sullivan, narrowly beaten for the Olympic 5,000m title four years ago, said: "I am sticking with the distance again and I plan sharpening my speed with a 1500m race in Watford on June 12th.

"I was delighted with the way things went and it proves all of the hard training I have put in during the last few weeks has been the right kind.

"There were some really world class runners out there and I am delighted with how I beat them," added O'Sullivan, whose winning time was 32 minutes,12 seconds.