O'Sullivan given solid test

Athletics/ Great Ireland Run: There was no disguising the satisfaction on the face of Sonia O'Sullivan after her second-place finish in Saturday's Great Ireland Run, even if it was less than a quarter of the distance she's been training for.

So for the next seven days she'll run as little and as slowly as she can bear and then take on most of the best women marathon runners in the world.

O'Sullivan knows as well as anyone that the difference between the London Marathon this Sunday and the Great Ireland Run in the Phoenix Park is night and day. But so was her performance on Saturday compared to the same 10-kilometre event a year ago, when she trailed home a distant fourth behind Catherina McKiernan. At 35 there is clearly some life left in the old legs.

She knows too that it will be difficult to avoid the temptation of actually taking on the likes of Paula Radcliffe next Sunday.

She admits there will be a point in the marathon when she knows the pace will be beyond her, but at least she's going in there in the right frame of mind.

"There is a big difference between training and racing," she said afterwards, "so something like this should kick start me for London next Sunday. And that race was definitely what I needed. I felt very good, especially compared to my run here last year."

On the day she was just edged out of by Amy Rudolph of the United States, but there was some consolation in that Rudolph will marry Ireland's Mark Carroll, seventh in the men's race here, next October, so it was the next best thing to a home victory.

There was also consolation in the fact O'Sullivan had done almost all the front running in the closing stages. Rudolph got past her only in the final 250 metres, winning in 32 minutes, 16 seconds. O'Sullivan was just a few strides back in 32:18, while Jolene Byrne - running beyond her best distance - made it an excellent day for the Irish women by taking third in 32:21.

"I probably got a little bit impatient," added O'Sullivan, "and went a little too early. And we were going fairly hard from quite a ways out.

"I probably should have waited until around 10 or 20 metres to go. It goes to show you can always forget the best tactics."

Rudolph, twice an Olympian at 5,000 metres, praised the efforts of O'Sullivan, who ensured the race was always honest, and quickly burnt off most of the other elite runners: "Sonia was doing most of the running, in fairness, and really started pushing it hard in the second half of the race. I felt okay around eight kilometres and was still there at nine. So after that I just waited to make one last effort. I figured I'd probably be a little sharper than her considering I've just come off the indoor season."

A group of four had passed halfway in 15:49, England's Charlotte Dale completing the quartet.

Clearly O'Sullivan was feeling good enough to press the pace, and considering she hadn't yet raced this year - instead loading up the miles for the marathon - there is every reason to believe we haven't heard the last of her on the world stage.

As expected, the men's race was dominated from the gun by Craig Mottram, who took the title for the third year running. The tall, long-striding Australian is currently the best distance runner in the world outside of Africa and skipped home in 28:35, over half a minute clear of England's Chris Davis (29:07).

Carroll had hoped to match the performance of his fiancee, but struggled to get going and was left dazed and confused looking at the finish, coming home in seventh, clocking 29:54.

"I was training at that pace last week, so that was so, so frustrating," explained Carroll.

"I was out of it there after half a mile. I don't know if it was the travelling back from the US or what, but it really p***es me off when I come home and run badly like that."

BUPA GREAT IRELAND RUN 10KM: Men - 1 C Mottram (Aus) 28:35, 2 C Davis (England) 29:07, 3 M Miles (Eng) 29:24, 4 J Mayock (Eng) 29:26, 5 R Ribas (Port) 29:30, 6 M O'Dowd (Eng) 29:32, 7 M Carroll (Irl) 29:54, 8 A Sitovskiy (Ukr) 30:17. Women - A Rudolph (USA) 32:16, 2 S O'Sullivan (Irl) 32:18, 3 J Byrne (Irl) 32:21, 4 C Dale (Eng) 33:15, 5 M McCambridge (Irl) 33:23, 6 H Yelling (Eng) 34:06, 7 O Meltsayeva (Ukr) 34:08, 8 J Augusto (Port) 34:09.