Athletics National Championships: The intention was good and you had to admire her courage and yet things didn't quite work out for Sonia O'Sullivan at yesterday's National Championships. She first ran the 800 metres and later sought some consolation in the 1,500 metres, and both times came away with the bronze medal. Not quite the Olympic send-off she was hoping for.
In fact the last time O'Sullivan attempted the two events at the championships was before the Sydney Olympics, and she won them both: a nice indication of her subsequent medal-winning form. It's still too early to write off her chances for Athens but clearly some of the old spark is missing.
Originally O'Sullivan came to Santry with just the ambition of winning the 800 metres. She looked the part at the bell, sitting on the shoulder of Kelly McNiece. But neither of those two could match the awesome finishing speed of Aoife Byrne, the 23-year-old from Dundrum who continues to threaten a major breakthrough.
Byrne took gold and her second title, her time of two minutes 6.40 seconds gratifying considering the wind. McNiece held on for silver, with O'Sullivan's bronze coming in 2:07.74.
O'Sullivan then left for a fast 20-minute run around the roads of Santry, then ran around the stadium for another 20 minutes, and then decided to start in the 1,500 metres. Again she was primed for the win with 300 metres to go, but first Róisín McGettigan stormed past, and then the eventual winner, Freda Davoren - who clocked a more tactical 4:20.98.
"When I came back from the run I called up (coach) Alan Storey, and asked him again should I definitely not run the 1,500 metres," she explained. "He said it wouldn't do me any harm, as long as it turned out positive. It was a bit of a silly race, but it wasn't a bad result.
"But I would say it was a good day's work overall. Some hard training anyway. I kind of felt like doing a hard run at the end of it all, but I was probably just a bit dead-legged out there, and couldn't really pick up the pace. That's something I have to work on over the next few weeks."
O'Sullivan confirmed that the Zurich Golden League meeting on August 6th will be her last and probably most telling race before Athens. Deep down she knows she'll have to improve if there is to be any repeat in Athens of her Sydney silver.
"It's the last few weeks now, and you just have to concentrate on what you really need for the race. The main thing for me is the finishing bit, because I've got all the rest. Normally I always have the finishing bit, but from doing all the longer work I just need to freshen up a little."
She wasn't the only Athens-bound athlete to come away from Santry thinking of improvement. Gillian O'Sullivan almost limped around Saturday's 5,000-metre walk, clearly impeded by the lower-back injury of recent weeks. She still managed to win in 21:18.39, but moments later was informed of her disqualification for three warnings.
Olive Loughnane took the title then in 22:13.89, and left O'Sullivan in pensive mood less than three weeks before the Olympic flame arrives in Athens.
Other Olympic hopefuls departed the scene in better spirits. James Nolan looked to have recovered his old zip when winning the 800 metres with a last lap of 53.6 seconds, just enough to hold off Ciarán O'Connell of Monaghan, with Thomas Chamney of Crusaders third.
Now Nolan's thoughts switch back to the 1,500 metres.
"I'm running at my best again," he said. "I was a bit apprehensive about getting the cortisone injection on this lower back problem because you hear so many things about them but it worked within four days and as you can see I'm floating again.
"I was rocking for a while when I had that injury but now I'm running the way I always did. The kick is back again too, which is great, and it was good to step down to 800 metres and still be able to win."
Mark Carroll is also coming into form at the right time and took the 5,000 metres in 13:51.67.
As expected, there was a real show of class by Alistair Cragg, who led every step of the way to win the 1,500 metres in 3:44.37 from young Colin Costello of Meath, who set a lifetime best of 3:45.34, with Carroll running well again to take third.
Among the other highlights was the brave 5,000m fight-back of Marie McCambridge of Dundrum to win in 15:49.38 and Karen Shinkins winning her eighth successive national 400m title.
Byrne was named woman athlete of the championship for her 800-metre victory, while the men's award went to Tomás Coman - the talented Tipperary man back from two years of injuries to win the 400 metres impressively in 45.91 seconds. Robert Daly (45.98) and David Gillick (46.27) claimed the other medals.
Peter Coghlan coolly collected his eighth national title over the 110-metre hurdles in 13.80 but like 200-metre winner Paul Hession won't be going to the Olympics.
"Of course it's frustrating. I've run the B standard nine times, and I'm not going to say the Olympics mean nothing to me. I'm right there, so I'll keep going for that time. And I think if I get it before August 9th then absolutely I should go," he said.
"If they had a good reason for these early deadlines I would accept them, but their reasons are terrible. This time five years ago I had the best season of my life when I started running well at this time. I feel now I'm in at least Olympic semi-final shape. So I'm just delighted the team is so strong that they can afford to leave me behind."
