SONIA O'SULLIVAN had her first taste of the Centennial Olympic track in Atlanta in the early hours of this morning and qualified in some style for tomorrow night's 5,000 metres final. O'Sullivan chased down a lead of over 30 metres on the final lap to win her heat in a time of 15:15.81.

On a relatively cool Atlanta evening, in a race which started, in keeping with the chaos surrounding these Games, almost 20 minutes behind schedule, O'Sullivan was in a strong heat, which included American Lynn Jenaiags, Sweden's Sara Wedlund and Alison Wyeth of Great Britain. The race was the second fastest of the three heats.

"It wasn't like a big effort to win tonight", said O'Sullivan afterwards.

"Maybe the first heat is harder because people are running slow and running for place. Sixteen people and only four guaranteed a place. It's hard to judge, but I am pleased."

Wedlund, the Swede, with the strong resemblance to the Milky bar kid, made some impact in the heats at the World Championships in Gothenburg last year and was back to make the early running, with O'Sullivan content to hover in the pack.

With O'Sullivan still watching and waiting, a situation she described afterwards as "distracting", the Brazilian Rolseli Machado took over the running briefly, leading the field through the 1,000 metre mark in a relatively sedate split time of 3:02.05.

By the 2,000 mark, Wedlund had re-established herself, carrying the field through in a consistent 6.05.09. By then the pack was beginning to string out. They hit the 3,000 metres mark in 9:09.80, with Wedlund enjoying a five yard lead and running strongly. A pack of seven runners, including O'Sullivan, tracked her steadily, but a collective lapse of concentration on the part of the pursuers allowed to stretch her lead.

With three laps remaining, O'Sullivan was forced to go wide to get past a knot of runners and bring the receding figure of the diminutive Swede back into her sights. Having come through the 4,000 metre mark in 12:18.06, and enjoying a 40 metre lead, Wedlund found the going suddenly get tough as O'Sullivan's instincts finally bit in on the final lap.

"Yeah," said O'Sullivan afterwards of the decision to go for a win rather than mere qualification. "With about 500 to go, I started counting the seconds as to how far ahead she was and then I was thinking 28 seconds left with 200 to go, she runs 32 for that at the most. I knew there was a fair chance of catching her, so I went for it."

Putting in a 62 second final lap, O'Sullivan's long strides simply devoured the ground between herself and Wedlund and brought the Olympic stadium crowd to its feet. She starting closing Wedluad down at the start of the bell and had caught her on the back straight, pulling away still further on the last bend as Wedlund was devoured by the pack.

Evidently pleased with her showing and her first sample of the much hyped Georgia humidity, O'Sullivan spoke of the difficulties of handling heats as opposed to finals.

"There was so much movement in the race it was distracting. That's alright in a final it makes the time pass but in a heat, when you are thinking about saving energy, it's a distraction.

"I got stuck in behind some people at one stage and didn't like it. I'm always more comfortable in the lead."

"It was humid out there, you sweat a lot, but not too bad. The main thing is concentrating. I'm very uncomfortable in the middle of the pack. I missed Wedlund's move early on and I thought I had to go with her. It's difficult to be looking at everyone and wondering what they are doing, but you have to do that in the heats."

Just how hard the tempo of heats are to judge was shown in the two subsequent qualifiers. Roberta Brunet of Italy led the field home in 15:22.58, with Ireland's Marie McMahon some 37 seconds back in the pack. Brunet was followed across the line by Michiko Shimozu of Japan, Paula Radcliffe of Great Britain and Wang Junxia of China, who faces a 10,000 metres semi final today.

Finally as a simple demonstration of the threat provided by the Kenyan contingent, Pauline Konga led the field almost all the way home in the final heat, recording the fastest time of the night in 15:07.03. Katy McCandless, the Californian racing for Ireland, was forth in 15.55.

Meanwhile, for Eugene Farrell, the 23 year old 400 metres runner from Roscommon, there was disappointment as he finished sixth in his heat in a time of 47.18, placing him 48th overall and deep among the ranks of the non qualifiers.

The result will come as something of a blow for Farrell whose personal best in the event is almost a second faster than the time he recorded last night. The heat was won by former world champion and world record holder Butch Reynolds in a time of 45.72.

Farrell was drawn in heat six of the 400 and caught an Atlantan crowd still recovering from the buzz of Michael Johnson's first appearance in these games. In a novel piece of show boating Johnson eased down dramatically over the final 30 metres, allowing himself to be edged out for first place in the heat by the Sri Lankan, Sugath Thilakaratne, in a time of 15.79. Johnson came in 100th of a second behind. The Sri Lankan's desperate lunge to the line earned him a national record as well as edging out Johnson.