SONIA O'SULLIVAN'S preparations for the World Indoor Championships, were accelerated significantly yesterday with a decisive 5,000 metres win in the Melbourne Grand Prix.
Just days after an unexpected 3,000 metres defeat by Kate Anderson, O'Sullivan took her revenge on the Australian by finishing some eight seconds in front of her in a time of Is minutes 17.56 seconds. Natalie Harvey, another Australian, was third.
The winner's time was some 37 seconds outside her national record but this, she dismissed as an irrelevance. "The important thing was that I got to the finish line first and I ran my race to ensure that I got to the line first," she said.
"With things going so badly wrong for me last Sunday, there was, of course, a nagging doubt in my mind going into the race and I needed to be reassured on a couple of points.
"I still can't explain what went wrong last Sunday but after winning so easily here today, I now know there is nothing seriously, wrong with me. And that's a relief, with the world championships in Paris only a fortnight away."
Originally she was due to run in a mile event but with many Australians in search of a qualifying time for the world outdoor championships at Athens in August, the organisers replaced it with a 5,000 metres race.
The effect was to bring O'Sullivan into renewed competition with Anderson much earlier than she had anticipated.
Uncertain if the problems which broke her challenge in Hobarth would surface a second time, she ran conservatively, on her own admission, in the early stages. For the first 4,000 metres, she was content to run at the Australian's shoulder but once she injected extra pace on the third last lap, it was all over.
. On a night when Ethiopia's Olympic champion, Halle Gebrselassie became the first man to break 13 minutes in an indoor 5,000 metres race, Marcus O'Sullivan revived his 1,500 metres hopes with seasonal best figures in Stockholm.
O'Sullivan, who had virtually written himself out of the world indoor championships, is now rethinking his plans after returning a time of 3 mins 37.40 secs in finishing second to the Kenyan, William Tanui (3-36.89).
In a truly run race in which the leaders were timed at 56 seconds for the first 400 metres, 1:54.2 at 800 and 2:55.2 at 1,200 metres, O'Sullivan came from sixth with 300 metres to go to overtake the Moroccan, Acceddine Seddiki on the back straight and finish a close up second to the Kenyan.
"This was the equivalent of a 3:53.5 mile and it has persuaded me to look again at the world championships," said O'Sullivan.
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