Sonia O'Sullivan confirmed yesterday that the 5,000 metres will be her primary event at the Sydney Olympics. She will, however, allow her name to remain among the entries for the 10,000 metres as a fallback measure.
After completing an 800 and 1,500 metres double in the TNT national championships at Santry yesterday, O'Sullivan said that her preparations for Sydney are being focused on the 5,000 metres.
"I sat down with my coach, Alan Storey, and we were both agreed that the 5,000 offered the better option," she said. "This is the event I know more about and I'm happy that I've made the right decision. "He asked me what I wanted to do and when I told him he said that was his thinking too. But he said he wanted to hear it from me first. "By staying in the 10,000, I have the choice of running that event. And since nobody else has been selected at this distance in the Irish team, I'm not keeping anybody off in doing so."
Significantly, O'Sullivan has added another event to her pre-Olympic programme. Originally scheduled to finish after running a 1,500-metres race at Brussels on Friday, she will now compete over 3,000 metres at Gateshead next Monday. The Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, has promised any assistance he can offer to have the controversial decision to debar the former British international Sarah Reilly from competing for Ireland in Sydney reversed.
It is hoped that the process of securing an Irish passport for Reilly, who married the Irish high jump title-holder Brendan Reilly last year, can be accelerated to secure the necessary documentation. Overall, the selection process for the Olympics has not been well received in some quarters and Una English, who finished second in career-best figures of 15 minutes 26.69 seconds yesterday, was visibly upset as she reflected on last Thursday's news that she was not among the three athletes selected for the 5,000 metres.
"I applaud the athletes who have been selected but I feel I have been let down by the administrators who changed the goalposts in the selection process - and informed only some athletes they were doing so," she said.
"Some athletes were told that the 5,000 metres we ran in Hechtel would be a trial for the Olympic team - but not me. And when my foot hurt, I dropped out of that race rather than jeopardise my chances of running in the Irish championships which I understood would be the basis for selection.
"That lack of communication with some athletes is unacceptable. I gave up my job two years ago to prepare for the Olympics and now I find it whipped away from me by administrators who have no conception of what it's all about."
