O'Sullivan completes redemption

After a struggle many doubted she would conquer, Sonia O'Sullivan finds herself back at the peak of world athletics after her captivating win in the European 5,000 metres championship yesterday.

The final journey on the road to rehabilitation was completed in 15 min utes 6.50 seconds, long enough to see off the feared challenge of the favourite, Gabriela Szabo of Romania, and become the first woman to complete the 5,000 and 10,000 metres double in a major championship. O'Sullivan, seldom given to excesses of emotion, fought back tears of joy as the tricolour was run up the flag pole in the Nepstadion and for the second time in four days the strains of Amhran na bhFiann filled the arena.

It was by any standard an emotional scene, the more so as we recalled tears of a different kind after her world collapsed in the Olympic Games two years ago. Now the good times were rolling once more and O'Sullivan, with four major titles to her credit this year, is again a name to excite and intimidate on the international circuit. Finally, the trauma of Atlanta has subsided. At the end of an engrossing cat-and-mouse game in which the Irish woman ran in Szabo's slipstream before passing her at withering speed down the final straight, the margin had stretched to 10 metres. O'Sullivan had played the waiting game to perfection but even as the Irish camp celebrated Szabo was complaining bitterly about the winner's tactics. "She deserves the gold medal and I congratulate her," said the Romanian. "But it was a lack of fair play by her - she let me do all the work. At 3,000 metres I stepped aside so that she could lead but she just pushed me. "I didn't expect her to behave like this. But that is athletics and I just have to accept it."

It was a tactic with innumerable precedents and, as ever, one had to sympathise in part with the athlete who had accepted the responsibility for front-running, only to see it all undone at the finish. Yet, it ought not detract from the merit of the champion's race plan or the manner in which she saw it through - the temptation to inject extra pace, in the hope of breaking Szabo much earlier may have been considerable at times. That was the mark of a fully disciplined athlete who, apart from one brief lapse, when the Romanian surged with 500 metres to go, never made a semblance of an error. Happily, the ground lost on that occasion was recovered within 30 metres and from there on in, the hand of history beckoned O'Sullivan.

Incredibly for a race of this importance, the first lap was run in 77 seconds. It was a funereal pace and played into the hands of the Big Two. Szabo, predictably, was the first to react and a second lap of 70 seconds quickly split the field into two groups. Valerie Vaughan and Una English, the other Irish runners, were detached but up front, Szabo, O'Sullivan, Marta Dominguez, Kathryn Fonsecas and Annemari Sandell were settling in for a long war of attrition. Having inflicted the initial damage with that early charge, the Romanian, dwarfed by the athletes behind her, slowed the pace down again and with nobody else prepared to take on the hard work, the field lapped at 73 to 74 seconds until the 4,500 mark.

Then, as they approached the bell, Szabo kicked and O'Sullivan, caught unprepared, receded to fourth place. In the event, there was enough speed in her legs to move her back to the leader's shoulder almost immediately and the stage was set for a finish to compare with the drama of the 10,000 metres final. On this occasion, O'Sullivan chose to heighten the plot until they straightened out of the last bend but once she decided to sprint, the effect was just as decisive. Throwing a last backward glance at Szabo, she went for broke and it worked.

The litle Romanian, brave and resilient on so many occasions, had nothing left to give and as the momentum left her we knew at last that O'Sullivan's journey back to respectability was over. This time, there were no theatrics, no punching of the air as she went over the line. She had just reduced another of the world's great runners to mediocrity and the predominant feeling, one suspected, was one of relief rather than exhilaration.

That would come later and at the end of a tense, eventful week, the woman whom many had written off as a serious player on the world stage was, at last, back where she belonged.

It was a good time to be Irish!