O'Sullivan off the pace

A less than perfect Grand Prix outing for Sonia O'Sullivan saw her finish in fourth place over 3,000 metres in Nice on Saturday evening. Although the distance is a little short of her strongest and those ahead of her were of world class quality, it again displays a certain lack of competitive edge for this stage of the season.

Victory eventually went to Russia's Tatyana Tomashova - who finished second behind O'Sullivan in her season-opening win in Helsinki last month - in a time of eight minutes 36.37 seconds. Most of the running, however, was done by world marathon record holder Tegla Loroupe of Kenya, competing even further below her optimum distance, and Ethiopia's world 10,000 metres champion Gete Wami.

In the end, the Russian had the better finishing kick to outrun the African duo in the last 200 metres, but at that stage O'Sullivan was well out of contention and was some 15 metres adrift when finishing fourth in 8:41.43.

It was somewhere around the 2,000 metres mark that the Cork woman lost touch with the leaders. The pace of 5:47.5 was not particularly fast, but when Loroupe began pressing forward with more intent, O'Sullivan was unable to respond. Before that, she had always looked slightly uncomfortable, chopping back and forth in the middle of the field and never appearing to find her stride.

While Tomashova's finish was impressive, and she continues to show remarkable improvement this season, both Wami (8:36.92) and Loroupe (8:37.65) were competing so far short of their best distance that they will be reasonably satisfied with their respective times.

For O'Sullivan, who did make it clear before this race that she was in the midst of heavy training in the build-up to the Sydney Olympics, the result will nonetheless be disappointing. Even three laps into the race she appeared to be labouring and while she was always quite secure of the fourth-place finish, there were no athletes of great significance behind her.

Conditions were extremely hot, but when the gap opened on the leaders O'Sullivan could never find that extra gear to respond. The bell, reached in 7:32.5, resulted in a last lap of some 64 seconds - something that, in her best form, would never be too much for O'Sullivan to handle.

This result follows O'Sullivan's third-place finish in the Paris Grand Prix a fortnight ago and while the Sydney Olympics are still some 10 weeks away, it can't be that much longer before O'Sullivan will want to return to winning ways. Next up are the Bislett Games in Oslo on Friday week, where O'Sullivan plans to run over 1,500 metres.

The more important test, however, will come early next month when she runs her first major 5,000 metres of the year in London. Indeed, that is the race which is likely to decide whether she will aim for the 10,000 metres in Sydney or remain with the shorter distances.

There was better news for France's triple Olympic champion Marie-Jose Perec, who showed she was back on track in her bid for Olympic gold when she booked a spot at Sydney on Saturday despite coming third in her first 400 metres race in four years.

The 32-year-old Guadeloupean, reigning 200 and 400 metres Olympic champion, who has been racked by injury since Atlanta, took another step in her bid for an unprecedented third gold medal over 400 metres at the Sydney Games when she clocked 50.32 seconds.

For her first 400 metres since 1996 it was an excellent result, coming on the heels of her second place and 22.71 in Lausanne in the 200 metres event.

Perec, in lane four between winner Katharine Merry of Britain and runner-up Lorraine Graham of Jamaica, gave a strong performance despite a cautious start. Merry's winning time was 50.05.

"I've a lot of regrets. I was so scared at the start that I waited too long during the first 150/200 metres. I told myself that I couldn't finish the second part. I thought that the last 100 metres would be very difficult and frankly it wasn't as bad as I thought," said Perec.

"I even surprised myself. I thought I would run between 50.50 and 51 seconds. I'm happy because I've never made a 400 metres return with such a time! It's as if a weight has been lifted. I feel lighthearted and reassured," said Perec, who has suffered from the energy sapping Epstein-Barr disease.

Perec's training partner Anthuan Maybank of the United States won the men's 400 metres, his first race of the season, with 44.80, ahead of Jamaica's Gregory Haughton in 45.03 and Britain's Jamie Baulch in 45.38.

Running in the outside lane, Maybank powered away from the start and built up a lead that he was to hold right to the finish, despite spirited attacks from Baulch and Haughton as they rounded the final bend.

Both Maybank and Perec sang the praises of their German coach Hermann Meier: "Its all thanks to him," said Perec. "There are a lot of coaches who could learn from Mr Meier. Thanks to him I found it easier to come back now than in 1995."

In the 3,000 metres steeplechase Moroccan duo Brahim Boulami and Ali Ezzine produced a season's best in the event as Boulami won the sprint from his compatriot to time 8:03.30.

In the 1,000 metres, Kenyan Noah Ngeny won the sprint from France's Mehdi Baala in a time of 2:14.78.

The women's 1,500 metres was won by Olga Kunetsova of Russia in 4:03.50, followed by her compatriot Olga Nelyubova and Hayley Tullet of Britain.

Olympic pole vault champion Jean Galfione of France, making his return to competition after an operation on a collapsed lung, cleared 5.50 metres for eighth place, in a competition won by reigning world champion Maksim Tarasov with 5.82 metres.