Given the fact Sophie O’Sullivan can count on one finger the number of times she had raced indoors before going to college in the US, it’s clearly not her preferred running arena. It also makes for a different challenge, physically and mentally.
“I think it was the Irish Nationals maybe, I definitely ran one race in Athlone, on the indoor track there,” she says. “It was an 800m, but I was going so slow that I thought it was a 1,500m. I guess it’s always a bit harder when you’re tall, getting around those bends.
“Even in America, our indoor track in Washington is a 300m [flat] track. I think just because I’ve never been really fit during the indoor season, it’s kind of hard, I just never got going. And you’re never going to like it as much if you’re not going as well as you like.”
O’Sullivan is not alone in that way of thinking. Steve Ovett once upon a time took up a lucrative offer to race on the US indoor circuit, only things didn’t go to plan: “It felt like I was running around a bathtub,” he said, “and after a few laps I fell down the drain.”
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As for the number of indoor races she’s run so far this season, O’Sullivan can hold her thumb against her index finger to form a zero. Yet she now finds herself in Nanjing as part of the six-strong Irish team competing at this weekend’s World Indoor Championships, qualified for the 1,500m via the ranking quota, even though China wasn’t on her radar until recently.
After spending our winter months training in the Australian summer with the Melbourne Track Club, O’Sullivan raced a 1,500m in Perth on March 1st, winning in 4:06.74, and had also lined up a road mile in Japan last weekend, also winning that. Nanjing being just a four-hour flight away, the chance for further championship experience came calling.
“The thing with indoors, I find that I’d not always be in the shape to be racing a lot. It was nice to get a good block of training, because I was training from December through to now. I would love to have done the European Indoors, but even though I was qualified, I couldn’t turn up based on not knowing where I’m at yet.
“I just think this year, I was kind of focusing on the World Championships [in Tokyo in September]. I thought I just wanted to get a good year of training in, so I was kind of just not really looking to race heaps. I ran one race outdoors, in Australia. And it was kind of better than I’d ever been at the time of year. I figured, you know, I was in good shape, so I might as well come and give the indoors a crack.”
O’Sullivan only turned 23 last December and Nanjing will be her first indoor championship experience. There’s certainly no pressure, the Irish spotlight being on Sarah Healy and Kate O’Connor as they hope to add to their European Indoor success from earlier this month. Mark English was hoping to do likewise, but withdrew from the 800m due to illness.
Healy became the first Irish woman to win a European Indoor gold medal with her 3,000m victory in Apeldoorn, and is ranked fourth among the 3,000m entries in Nanjing. O’Connor also made history in Apeldoorn with her bronze in the pentathlon, a first senior multi-event medal for Ireland, and is ranked second of the entries.
A lot will depend on how well both athletes recover and adjust to the different time zone, with Healy benefiting from a straight final this time. Ireland haven’t won any medal at the World Indoors since Derval O’Rourke struck gold in Moscow in the 60m hurdles back in 2006, and there have only been six individual Irish medal winners in all, including O’Sullivan’s mother Sonia, who won silver in the 3,000m in 1997.
“You’re just so happy to see, Sarah, especially, because you know she’s capable always,” says O’Sullivan. “You know when people get medals, you think it just makes it a bit more possible for everyone and, it just kind of puts the thought out there.”
O’Sullivan has her own targets for Nanjing. After missing qualification from her 1,500m heat at the Paris Olympics, finishing one place short despite running a lifetime best of 4:00.23, making the final would be a perfectly valuable experience.
“I just really want to find a way to get out of the heats this year, so that’s been the real change since Paris. The easiest way to do the best you can and get through is just focus on trying to get as high up in the race as possible, and focus on the simple things of racing and competing, and the things I know I can do well.”
O’Sullivan has one more quarter-term of eligibility at the University of Washington, and will return to the Seattle campus next month to race the NCAA outdoor season, where she is still coached by Maurica Powell, before basing herself in Europe in the build-up to Tokyo.
“And I have to go back and sell my car, that’s still there,” she says. “But it’s the most consistent bit of training I’ve had in a long time. I’m excited about that, to keep adding to that over the next few months and see where I can take that.”
Andrew Coscoran is entered both the 1,500m and 3,000m in Nanjing, James Gormley the 3,000m only, and Sarah Lavin the 60m hurdles, after finishing fourth in Apeldoorn.
Irish in action
World Indoor Championships, March 21st-23rd (Live on BBC, all times Irish)
Kate O’Connor, pentathlon (from 02.05, Friday)
Sophie O’Sullivan, 1,500m (heats Friday, 10.35)
Andrew Coscoran, 1,500m (heats 11.20 Friday), 3,000m (final 11.33, Saturday)
James Gormley, 3,000m (final 11.33, Saturday)
Sarah Healy, 3,000m (final 11:15, Saturday)
Sarah Lavin, 60m hurdles (heats from 02.25, Sunday)
