An Achilles tendon injury has interrupted Sonia O'Sullivan's winter training in Australia, and also raised a large doubt over her participation in next month's World Cross Country Championships in Lausanne. O'Sullivan withdrew from last Sunday's IAAF cross country race in Chiba, Japan, and has now not trained for several days.
Though the exact nature of the injury is not known, Achilles problems are notoriously difficult to shake off. Yesterday her London-based coach, Alan Storey, admitted it would take several days before they could fully assess the extent of the setback.
"These sort of niggling injuries can disappear as quick as they arrive," said Storey. "Obviously Sonia has been getting as much treatment as possible from Alison Rose (assistant to Gerard Hartmann), but we simply don't know yet how long this injury will take to clear up."
It is clear, however, that O'Sullivan faces a race against time to get fully fit for the World Cross Country, which takes place on the last weekend in March. She returned to light training only on January 1st after an extended break following her difficult experience at the New York Marathon in November.
O'Sullivan was then forced to abandon her high-altitude training base outside of Melbourne after just a week when bush fires hit the area. Sunday's cross country race in Japan was intended to mark her first competitive outing of the season, but as the injury became more troublesome she notified the organisers she would not be travelling.
Last week she announced her intention to use the Rás na hÉireann cross country in Dunleer on March 16th as the final stepping stone to the world championships, but her participation in that race is equally doubtful. Should O'Sullivan be forced to withdraw from Lausanne, then the Irish women's team would have severely reduced chances of repeating the bronze medals won last year in Leopardstown.
Sunday's race in Japan was won by O'Sullivan's frequent training partner, Benita Willis of Australia, who is also targeting the short course race at the world championships.
There was better news over the weekend regarding the Irish team for the World Indoor Championships, to be staged in Birmingham on March 14th-16th. Four more athletes secured the qualifying times at the weekend's national championships in Belfast, and further afield in South Africa and the US both James Nolan and Karen Shinkins put themselves in line for selection.
In Belfast, Maria Lynch and Maria McCambridge dipped under the 3,000 metres qualifying standard, as did Geraldine Hendricken over 1,500 metres (along with Lynch, who took second place). Mark Howard also secured the 60 metre time when running an Irish record of 6.71 seconds in Saturday's heats.
However, both McCambridge and Hendricken are likely to by-pass Birmingham in favour of the World Cross Country, where they hope to gain selection on the women's short course team.
For Nolan, currently training in South Africa, the 3.41.93 clocking over 1,500 metres when winning the Stellenbosch meeting on Saturday is likely to see him added to the Irish team. Shinkins, the European Indoor bronze medallist from a year ago, ran her first 400 metres of the season at the Virginia Tech Invitational and took second place in 52.81. She will have one final race on March 1st before deciding on Birmingham.
The only other Irish qualifiers for the World Indoors to date are Paul Brizzell and Ciara Sheehy (200 metres), Paul McKee (400 metres) and Derval O'Rourke (60 metre hurdles).
