Sonia O'Sullivan hopes to get back to winning ways this evening when she competes in the 1,500 metres at the Slovnaft meeting in Bratislava. After a somewhat disappointing third place over 5,000 metres behind the much improved Zohra Ouaziz of Morocco in Paris last Thursday, O'Sullivan moves to the shorter distance as part of her continued preparation for the European Championship in August.
The main opposition is likely to come from three Kenyan runners including Jacquiline Maranga who has a best of 4:02.35 from last year as well as local runner Andrea Suldesova of the Czech Republic who has run 4:06.43 this season.
It will be only her second race over the distance since the dramatic final at the World Championships last summer where O'Sullivan was involved in a controversial pushing incident and ended up seventh.
Last February in Australia she had a respectable victory in 4:08.62 and has still to decide which event to concentrate on at the Europeans in Budapest. It is most likely, however, that she will defend the longer distance that she won so convincingly in Helsinki four years ago run over 3,000 metres.
O'Sullivan was quick to put her defeat at the hands of the Morrocan behind her and concentrate on the series of races ahead.
"I was ready to run about 14.50 but I'm not quite ready for 14.40," she said of her performance in Paris. "It's early season yet and there's a lot of running to be done before the Europeans."
The promoters have promised pace-setters for the race and O'Sullivan will be looking for something close to 4:05. Her best of 3:58.85 is three years old now although at this stage she'll be more concerned with the victory rather than chasing a fast time.
There is also a promised attack on the 2,000 metres world record by Daniel Komen of Kenya where he hopes to get inside the mark of 4:47.88 by Nouredine Morceli set three years ago in Paris.
Meanwhile, Susan Smith headed back to her training base in America yesterday following her outstanding performance at the Europa Cup in Lithuania over the weekend. The Waterford native had a seasonal best of 55.64 seconds over the 400 metres hurdles and then came back in the 100 metres hurdles to smash the Irish record with a time of 13.58 seconds. The previous mark by Olive Burke of 13.74 had stood since 1987. Smith was also a part of the winning 4x100 relay team and the 4x400 team that finished second.
Karen Shinkins of Dublin City Harriers also had a very satisfying weekend by setting a new national record of 52.81 seconds in winning the 400 metres. The old record of Patricia Walsh also goes back to 1987 and represents a huge breakthrough for Shinkins.
Unfortunately, the women's team went down to Belgium in the overall competition despite additional victories for Una English over 3000 metres, Valarie Vaughan over 5000 metres and Jacqui Stokes in the long jump. There were 16 victories altogether between the men and women in what was the best Europa Cup competition for many years.
