Athletics: Almost seven months after suffering badly in the New York Marathon, Sonia O'Sullivan was back in racing mode yesterday and was quickly back to her competitive best.
A third place finish in the Great Manchester Run clearly fulfilled her expectations and has now cast a far more positive light on the coming track season.
As expected, the Ethiopian duo of Berhane Adere and Derartu Tulu were a little too race-sharp for O'Sullivan, and took first and second respectively over the 10km race. Yet the Irish athlete went straight to the front and had done most of the pace-setting up until 9km, before her long winter lay-off through injury finally started to come against her.
Still, O'Sullivan battled hard to the finish and was well deserving of her third place. It was, she said, a relief to come through her first race in such a long time without any major problems, and that her return to competitive running was right on track.
"I had came into the race with an open mind, not knowing what to expect. But I wanted to run hard as well, because I knew I wouldn't have that much speed at the finish," she said.
"And even when fully fit, it is always a relief to get your first race of the year out of the way. Obviously I now know I made the right decision by having a long rest after the injury early this year.
"But it was quite tough out there, and when you are making a comeback from injury you are always a little worried whether or not it will stand up. So to run such a quick time has also told me my progress has been more than I could have hoped for since I began training properly again in the last few weeks."
For Adere, the World Indoor 3,000 metres champion from March, the now trademark finishing kick was enough to see off Tulu, with the winning time of 31 minutes 50 seconds giving her a three-second victory margin. O'Sullivan came home another seven seconds back in 32.00.
Britain's Charlotte Dale, still in the junior ranks, was the surprise fifth place finisher in 33.10. Paul Tergat outclassed fellow Kenyan Wilberforce Talel to win the men's race in 28.48.
O'Sullivan returns home next Monday for the Women's Mini Marathon - also over 10km - a race she won three years ago and where she'll also confront Catherina McKiernan for the first time on Irish soil.
McKiernan is returning from a far more lengthy lay-off, and despite winning the Dublin Five-mile Classic on Sunday, she is playing down the prospect of classic duel on the streets of Dublin.
"Well it should be a good occasion," said the Cavan athlete, "but I don't know if it will be a great race because I'm just not up to her standard right now. There is an awful lot of work to be done, but I am getting there."
Elsewhere, several Irish athletes produced notable performances this past weekend, with Paul Brizzel taking fourth over 100 metres final at the UK Inter-counties Championship at Bedford, clocking 10.47 seconds.
Gary Ryan clocked 21.00 when winning the 200 metres at a meeting in Germany, while Erin Kinnear bettered her Irish national senior record when winning the pole vault with a clearance of 3.77 metres at the Ulster Schools Championship on Saturday.
GREAT MANCHESTER RUN: Men's 10k: 1 P Tergat (Kenya) 28mins 48secs, 2 W Talel (Kenya) 28.50, 3 A Rono (Kenya) 28.56, 4 S Malakwen (Kenya) 28.59, 5 J Rey (Spain) 29.32, 6 M Openshaw (Birchfield) 29.35, 7 B Noad (Bristol) 29.37, 8 K Farrow (Derby) 29.43, 9 M O'Dowd (Swindon) 29.46, 10 A O'Connor (Unattached) 29.46. Women's 10k: 1 B Adere (Ethiopia) 31mins 50secs, 2 D Tulu (Ethiopia) 31.53, 3 S O'Sullivan (Ireland) 32.00, 4 Y Burykina (Russia) 32.21, 5 C Dale (Invicta) 33.10, 6 M Yamauchi (Harrow) 33.50, 7 G Aleksandrova (Russia) 34.05, 8 L Damon (Bournemouth) 34.08, 9 C Hoyte (Arena 80) 34.19, 10 R Ryan (Ireland) 34.31, 11 A Kealy (Irleand) 34.37. Men's Wheelchairs 10k: 1 H Frei (Switzerland) 21mins 48secs, 2 R Brunner (Germany) 22.00, 3 D Weir (Velocity) 22.14 Women's Wheelchairs 10k: 1 G Wallengren (Sweden) 27mins 46secs, 2 F Porcellato (Italy) 27.46, 3 T Grey Thompson (Brit) 27.46.
