Athletics: LACK of race fitness proved decisive in Sonia O'Sullivan's comeback appearance in the Glasgow Women's 10km road race yesterday, but the Olympic silver medallist pronounced herself satisfied with the nature of her performance, writes Ian O'Riordan.
Fifth place behind a trio of Kenyans and one Australian was enough to leave O'Sullivan with a positive mindset about the months ahead. "I needed to come back at some stage and make a start," she said, "and I have to be pleased with that outcome."
Lornah Kiplagat won in 31 minutes 53 seconds and fellow Kenyan Linah Cheruiyot took second (31:57), with Australian Natalie Harvey (32:29) third. O'Sullivan came in between another two Kenyans when clocking 32:35.
"I'd like to have made the top three but I clearly needed the race," she added, "and I would be very optimistic that I will benefit a lot from this." O'Sullivan's next race is the women's mini-marathon in Dublin on the June 4th Bank Holiday.
Elsewhere, the heat and humidity took their toll on the Irish competitors at the European Race Walking Cup in Slovakia on Saturday. Gillian O'Sullivan produced the highlight in the women's 20km race, finishing in ninth place in one hour 31 minutes and 13 seconds. Robert Heffernan finished 17th in the men's 20km race, clocking 1:23.57; Colin Griffin took a respectable 14th in the junior 10km race in 43.52.
There was also a positive start to the Grand Prix season for Peter Coghlan, who took third place in Doha, Qatar on Saturday in 13.74 seconds.
MOTOR SPORT: Tony Worswick and Sarah Kavanagh made it a Jordan 1-2 in both Super prix races at Mondello yesterday.
In the first of the two Boss Formula One championship races Kavanagh just failed to overtake Worswick, finishing one second down and setting the fastest lap as well. Noel McIntyre (Mullingar) finished third and won the Formula 3000 class.
Kavanagh made a fantastic start to lead the second race, only to have her advantage ruined when McIntyre spun on the second lap and caused the race to be stopped. Worswick was quicker off the line in the re-started race.
ROWING: Irish competitors had what team manager Mick O'Callaghan described as "very positive" results at the Essen regatta in Germany over the weekend, writes Liam Gorman.
Lightweight single sculler Sinead Jennings, a phenomenal new arrival last year, proved she is still up with the best with a win yesterday after a second place on Saturday.
The new men's lightweight pair of Gearoid Towey and Tony O'Connor won on Saturday and then teamed up with Derek Holland and Richard Archibald to finish second in a lightweight four yesterday. A four without O'Connor and Towey failed to make Saturday's final.
The management decided not to enter the double sculls competition; but a newlyminted lightweight quadruple scull, containing Owen and Neal Byrne, John Armstrong and Timmy Harnedy won on Saturday and finished second yesterday. O'Callaghan said: "We feel it is as good a quad as we have ever had."
BASKETBALL: Ireland's senior women suffered their fourth successive defeat in their European Championship qualifying group yesterday, losing out 79-85 to Belgium at the University Arena in Limerick. They were beaten 7162 by Portugal on Saturday. Susan Moran's 79 points made her top scorer of the tournament.
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/YVIRIOZQ35EWRPZXR27KGMO6YU.png)