O'Sullivan returns in style

A wholly convincing run in Saturday's international five-mile race showed that motherhood has not diminished either the commitment or strength of character which established Sonia O'Sullivan at the forefront of international athletics for so long.

In only her second competitive run since giving birth to her daughter, Ciara, in July, O'Sullivan looked as authoritative as ever when striding to an unofficial world best of 24 minutes 27 seconds, an improvement of some 20 seconds on the figures which Paula Radcliffe established at Balmoral last April.

Given that her first priority was to break 25 minutes, it was an excellent performance on a course which took the 700 runners in the mixed race through some exposed terrain in the early stages before it eventually meandered into town.

Compared to her run in the half marathon at Newcastle last week, this was a significantly improved effort, which the Cobh woman, who finished full of running, was quick to acknowledge.

"I reached a point in the Newcastle race when I realised that unless the others came back to me I wasn't going to win, and I eased down a lot in the middle of the race.

"Even then I was probably looking forward to running at Loughrea and, if I felt good on the day, getting close to Paula's record. All during the week I sensed there was a chance that if everything went right I might do it, and with that in mind we had the course measured accurately.

"Now I discover that it was six metres too long, but I'll settle for that. The important thing was to discover how I'd handle a sharp pace, and in the end I was delighted with the way it went."

Eleventh place overall, with some respectable male runners, including her partner, Nick Bideaux, stretched out in the distant pursuit represented a good day's work for the woman whose promise of getting back to full racing fitness within three months of giving birth was fully vindicated in this run.

Now she's off to Australia in a fortnight to start her preparations for the Sydney Olympics in a positive frame of mind.

"I needed the race to prove a few things to myself. Now I can travel in the knowledge that I'm read to start into a heavy training programme."

Tall and imposing, and impressively comfortable with the pace, O'Sullivan was on her toes and running at the back of the lead group of male runners over the first mile. That took her just 4:37, and even at that stage it was already apparent that she was headed for a big run.

Kenya's Ester Kipligat was the closest woman to her at that point, albeit at a remove of some 60 yards, but ultimately it would be the Daniella Nagal of Romania and Waterford's Rosemary Ryan, revelling in the carnival atmosphere, who followed her across the finish line.

At three miles O'Sullivan was timed at 14:40, and, with the Newcastle man Gary Thornton for company, she dug deep at that point to negotiate the most critical phase of the race and set herself up for the big finish which saw her power down the stretch in the manner of an athlete on easy terms with herself.

While the double European champion was dominating the women's race, the competitive element was much more pronounced among the men after the Kenyan, John Mutai, had gone out at a strong pace.

Mutai, who won the Great North Run at Newcastle, was still well clear at half way and apparently running with sufficient composure to add this race to his list of successes.

Then, when it looked as if that initial impetus would sustain him over the last mile, his stride shortened. And as Mutai began to suffer, so Hendrick Ramaala of South Africa sensed the chance to make his superior strength tell.

Gradually, inexorably, he closed with the Kenyan, and with Ramaala holding all the psychological advantages he surged clear in the closing stages to win by five seconds from Mutai in 22:22.

A feature of the race was the strong showing of Clare's Seamus Power. After a disastrous introduction to marathon running in Dublin last October, Power slumped to his most most disappointing season in years in cross country competition.

Recently, however, he has shown signs of a return to his best form, and he illustrated the point yet again with some confident, aggressive running which took him into third place, just ahead of Britain's Paul Evans. Martin McCarthy and David Burke were fifth and sixth respectively.

Men: 1 H Ramaala (South Africa) 22 mins 22 secs, 2 J Mutai (Kenya) 22:27, 3 S Power (Ireland) 22:54, 4 P Evans (Brit) 23:25, 5 M McCarthy (Ireland) 23:28, 6 D Burke (Ireland) 23:50.

Women: 1 S O'Sullivan (Ireland) 24 mins 27 secs, 2 D Nagal (Romania) 25:30, 3 R Ryan (Ireland) 25:45, 4 E Kipligat (Kenya) 26:06.

Kenya's Fred Kiprop won the Amsterdam marathon yesterday in a time of two hours six minutes 47 seconds, the fourth fastest time in history. The 25-year-old beat off the challenge from Ethiopia's Tesfaye Jifar and fellow Kenyan, William Kiplagat, who also ran under two hours seven minutes.