ATHLETICS/Cork City Sports: At least one chapter in Sonia O'Sullivan's long career came to a close at Saturday's Cork City Sports. Her sixth-place finish over 3,000 metres was significant on several counts, perhaps most of all in suggesting her life on the track has come full circle.
It was in the same Mardyke arena back in 1987 that O'Sullivan made her track breakthrough, winning the 3,000 metres in nine minutes 1.52 seconds, which still stands as the Irish junior record.
On Saturday she ran 9:05.94, and her expressions during and after the race couldn't have been more different from 18 years ago, as if she were now touching the void of life after running. Not everyone realised it at the time but she won't race in the arena again.
Nor will O'Sullivan contest next month's World Championships in Helsinki, and the only thing that's really keeping her going now is the thought of running one more decent marathon.
At 35, she clearly hasn't much road ahead, especially when she thinks about how much road she's left behind.
"It just wasn't there today," she said. "I don't know why, but it was just a case of not being at the races. It was hard coming here without having much time since the London Marathon. I've just been doing just a few track sessions, so I didn't really know what to expect.
"But I just don't have any plans at the moment. And I just don't feel like I'm aiming for anything. So I feel like I'm just at a loose end, and don't really have any focus on my season. The only plan I had was to run here and make a decision after that."
Perhaps the hardest part of Saturday's run is that O'Sullivan knows it could have been worse. Though she sat near the front for the early laps, once the young New Zealander Kim Smith injected real pace O'Sullivan was dropped. It was as if all her track speed had finally abandoned her. And had it been a Grand Prix race she would have been destroyed. In the end though she was just 10 seconds behind Australia's Benita Johnson, who won in 8:55.72.
Both Maria McCambridge and Jolene Byrne beat O'Sullivan with some ease, McCambridge going under nine minutes when posting fourth, Byrne fifth in 9:02.29.
It was only O'Sullivan's second defeat in 18 years of competing in her native Cork. She later hinted she's still likely to contest the national 5,000m in three weeks' time, but with a growing list of disappointments on the track, it appears it is time to move on.
O'Sullivan wasn't the only athlete chasing one more moment of glory on home soil. Mark Carroll still holds the Irish 3,000 metres record but also found time has run away when he lined up for the distance.
Craig Mottram put on a world-class show to win in 7:38.15, but Carroll was soon relegated to the race for best of the Irish - which he duly won when taking fifth in 8:02.53. US collegiate student Martin Fagan of Mullingar was right on his heels in sixth, and like O'Sullivan, Carroll recognised his championship career on the track is now history.
The other feeling running through that race was how sorely Alistair Cragg will be missed this summer. At his best Cragg would surely have tested Mottram to the limit, but he too will be watching Helsinki from his armchair while convalescing from a back injury.
David Gillick withdrew from the 400 metres with a hamstring strain, and Athletics Ireland will be praying he gets himself right soon or else the team heading to Helsinki will be disturbingly thin.
Yet one athlete in line to make that team is long-jumper Ciarán McDonagh, who six years ago became the first Irishman to clear eight metres. On Saturday he jumped 8.09 for second place behind Dwight Philips of the US (8.17). The Meathman needs 8.10 to make it to Helsinki, a distance he seems well capable of.
