Sonia O’Sullivan: Indoor season a small step on big road to Rio

It is beginning to feel a little more like an Olympic year. On Tuesday evening I was invited to the 100th running of the Victorian Mile Championship at Melbourne University.

Athletes of all ages came along to be a part of this very special evening. It was a who’s who of local athletes, coaches and fans, even though it was just one small step on the big journey to Rio.

There were also some famous Australian Olympians in attendance, including John Landy, one of the former winners of the Victorian Mile Championship, who was presented to the crowd and to the modern runners. Landy was the first Australian to run a sub-four minute mile, and the second ever – just six weeks after Roger Bannister, actually improving the world record to 3:58.0.

When the 1956 Olympics were staged in Melbourne, Landy won the silver medal behind our own Ronnie Delany.

It would be nice to see some 60th anniversary tributes for Delany over the next few months.

Winning the Victorian Mile this time was 20-year-old rising Australian star Luke Mathews, in a very impressive 3:56.1, a big personal best which also took down the stadium record held by another famous Australian Olympian, Merv Lincoln, which had stood for 50 years.

Still sleeping

Still, even with the Rio Olympics less than six months away, more than half the athletics world seems to be still sleeping. This is the period when all the hard work is put in, when athletes train at the highest possible volume, building a foundation to carry them through to Rio in mid-August.

For some athletes it’s a sort of hibernation, burying themselves away, stocking up on the mileage and other strength training before emerging again in the late spring and summer, all ready to go.

For other athletes – and particularly in Europe and the US – there is also the indoor season to consider, which can be a useful way of breaking up the monotony of the winter hibernation.

There is also the attraction, or perhaps distraction, of earning a little extra cash to help sustain their lifestyle.

Traditionally the US meetings draw the largest crowds and provided the best entertainment. I can remember while at Villanova what a treat it was to travel up to New York to watch the Millrose Games, in Madison Square Garden. It was pure adrenalin and entertainment, watching runners whizz around the old wooden 145m track, 11-laps to the mile.

I was there on several nights when Eamonn Coghlan and Marcus O’Sullivan were the star attractions of the famous Wanamaker mile. They were household names, drew massive crowds, and  the indoor season certainly served them well.

In Europe, the indoor season was set alight last week in Stockholm, with a couple of very impressive world records. Genzebe Dibaba from Ethiopia ran 4:13.31 in the women’s mile, smashing the 26 year old mark of Doina Melinte, from Romania, who ran 4:17.14 indoors, back in 1990.

This is actually the second fastest women’s mile ever run, indoors or outdoors, after the world record of Svetlana Masterkova from Russia, who ran 4:12.56 in the summer of 1996. There was also a world record for Ayanleh Souleiman from Djibouti in the men’s 1,000m. Both Dibaba and Souleiman aim to be in the Olympic medal hunt in Rio.

There have also been a few Irish records, Ciara Mageean improving the women’s indoor mile record at the Millrose Games on Sunday, while Mark English also set an Irish record in the 500m in Glasgow, on Saturday.

It all made for an exciting few hours last weekend, as I followed the updates on Twitter from Glasgow and New York.

There was also a once-off indoor appearance for Mo Farah, who came out of hibernation to win the 3,000m in Glasgow, looking well on track to defend both his Olympic titles in Rio.

We’re lucky now to have a superb facility in Athlone for athletes to avail of for training and competition, including this weekend’s National Indoor Championships. Then there’s the World Indoor Championships, set for Portland, Oregon next month, which presents an excellent chance to run in front of a packed stadium.

Ireland have a great record at the World Indoors; 10 medals have been won, five of those being gold – the last of which went to Derval O’Rourke, in the 60m hurdles.

But it’s not an easy decision for athletes to make: to be a part of a great indoor event, or to slip back into hibernation, with a more conservative plan to get Rio in the best shape possible. That would be the low-risk option, but would also mean giving up the opportunity to win a World Championship medal indoors.

I think if an athlete is confident of getting a positive result from the World Indoors then definitely they should go for it and make it happen. There is nothing greater than getting positive feedback on the world stage to boost momentum going into the summer of an Olympic year. But if they don’t see much of a chance they are better off avoiding the risk and focusing instead on the longer-term goal.

It will be interesting to look back, at the end of the year, and see which athletes were successful indoors and also managed to deliver in Rio in August.

But t the indoor season is just another small step on the big journey to Rio.