O'Sullivan aims for season best at Paris primer

ATHLETICS: The countdown to next month's World Championships in Paris continues for the two top Irish medal contenders this weekend, with Sonia O'Sullivan competing over 3,000 metres at the Gateshead Grand Prix on Sunday, and Gillian O'Sullivan competing on home soil at tomorrow's Dublin Grand Prix of Race Walking.

Gateshead marks only the third track race of the season for O'Sullivan, but she is seeking a more authoritative sort of run than in Lausanne (where she finished ninth) or in Cork last Saturday (where victory required an all-out effort). Yet, after a month's altitude training, O'Sullivan is intent on recording a fast time.

"I want to go up there now and definitely set a season's best," she said after her win in Cork over 1,500 metres. The eight minutes 54.16 seconds clocked in Lausanne will almost certainly be improved on, though included in the field are the two Ethiopians Werknesh Kidane and Meseret Defar, who finished well ahead of her on that occasion.

Una English goes in the same race, which concludes the Irish interest in the meeting. Gareth Turnbull, also victorious in Cork, has been trying to secure a start in the men's 1,500 metres but for now remains on the waiting list.

Tomorrow morning's walking event in Dublin's Phoenix Park (10 start) will be Gillian O'Sullivan's last race over 20km before the World Championships, which begin on August 23rd.

"It's always great racing in front of my family and the home supporters," she said, "and frustratingly I've never actually won this event, something I'm very keen to put right."

O'Sullivan remains the leading contender for the €30,000 prize that comes with the IAAF Race Walking Grand Prix, and the final stage of which is the World Championships.

Tomorrow's event also acts as the AAI National 20km championships, and favourite for the men's title is Waterford's Jamie Costin, normally the 50km specialist, as defending champion Robert Heffernan is absent with injury.

Also taking place on Sunday is the first round of the newly revamped Mazda Track and Field League. Two venues, Navan and Cork IT, will stage expanded entry lists which, under the new format, include athletes representing their clubs or, alternatively, if club size is deemed small enough, their counties.

Round two takes place in Santry and Tullamore on August 3rd, with the final placings of the top eight teams being decided at the National League final in Tullamore on August 17th.

Preparations are almost complete for the first in the countdown series of races ahead of the Adidas Dublin marathon next October. First up is the Adidas Irish Runner five-mile classic in the Phoenix Park on Sunday week,July 20th. Over 1,000 entries have already been received, which also indicates the growing interest in the full 26.2-mile distance.

The series continues with the Frank Duffy 10-mile next month, and the Adidas half-marathon in September, both of which also take place in the Phoenix Park.

On the international front, the IAAF Golden League continues in Rome this evening and the headline race is set to be another showdown between Haile Gebrselassie and his young Ethiopian rival Kenenisa Bekele. Last month in Hengelo, Bekele out-kicked the double world record holder over 10,000 metres, and Gebrselassie also lost out to the fast-finishing Kenyan Chebii Abraham over 5,000 metres in Paris a week ago.