In-form O'Sullivan goes the extra mile

Saturday's British Milers Club meeting in Watford provided Sonia O'Sullivan with a most useful workout ahead of her more challenging Grand Prix races in the weeks ahead. O'Sullivan competed over 1,500 metres - twice - and on both occasions achieved world class times.

Early in the evening, O'Sullivan competed in the lower grade of the men's race and recorded a time of four minutes 6.39 seconds when finishing sixth - her fastest time over the distance this year. Some 90 minutes later, she ran in the women's race and comfortably took first place in 4:08.08, well ahead of Australia's young sensation Georgie Clark, who had beaten O'Sullivan in Australia earlier in the year.

Both races gave O'Sullivan exactly what she wanted in terms of a well-paced race ahead of her forthcoming series of Grand Prix races, starting with the Bislett Games in Oslo next Friday.

O'Sullivan is also due to run the 1,500 metres on that occasion in what is sure to be a sterner test of form.

Elsewhere on Saturday, Sarah Reilly achieved the Olympic A standard for the 200 metres at the IAAF Permit meeting in Budapest. Reilly finished second in a new Irish record of 23.12 seconds and becomes the latest athlete to book her ticket to Sydney.

There was also an impressive sprint performance by Paul Brizzell, who won the 100 metres (10.44 seconds) and then finished third in the 200 metres (20.89).

The high jump pairing of Antoine Burke and Brendan Reilly finished third and fourth respectively with heights of 2.18 metres.

But it was a disappointing seasonal debut for Peter Coghlan, who failed to finish the 110 metre hurdles. The Dubliner is attempting to regain fitness after a long lay-off through injury but felt a twinge in his leg during the race and was forced to pull up. Other Irish performances of note included a third-place finish for Freda Davoren in the 800 metres (2:05.42) and Brian Liddy's second place in the 400 metre hurdles (51.55 seconds).