O'Sullivan struggles on return to track

Athletics: A somewhat puzzling run by Sonia O'Sullivan last night saw her finish in ninth place over her favourite 3,000 metres distance at the Athletissima Grand Prix meeting in Lausanne.

While she had just completed a very productive spell of altitude training in nearby St Moritz, clearly the lack of competitive tests came against the Cork athlete in what was her first track race of the season.

Taking a convincing victory on the night was the young Russian Yelena Zadorozhnaya, who last year had won the bronze medal behind O'Sullivan's silver at the European Championships 5,000 metres in Munich. She also clocked an impressive time of eight minutes 35.50 seconds, a six-second improvement on the stadium record and also the fastest time over the distance this season.

A heavy, thunderous downpour shortly before the start of the race contributed to a cautious pace over the opening stages, with the first lap passed in a conservative 70.9. For O'Sullivan, however, the pace started to get a little too hot shortly after the field passed the 1,000-metre mark in 2.51.39.

At that point six runners broke clear, and not long afterwards O'Sullivan was lodged in the trailing pack which had drifted some 70 metres behind.

While she did close that gap somewhat on the leaders over the final laps, she was never in contention for one of the leading places.

Instead, she had to be content with a time of 8.54.16, a little short of her pre-race expectations, and certainly a long way outside her personal best of 8.21.65, set back in 1994.

For Zadorozhnaya the pace remained more to her liking, and she was already in front at the 2,000-metre mark, which she passed in 5.43.38. From there to the end she looked like the only winner.

Much closer to the Russian were some of the athletes O'Sullivan is set to face next month in Paris when she attempts to win back the World 5,000 metres title. Ethiopia's Meserat Defar took second in 8.43.36, and her compatriot Werknesh Kidane took fourth in 8.46.14; both are likely to chase the medals in Paris in around eight weeks.

Yet part of O'Sullivan's disappointing performance on the night will surely be put down to the month-long period of training at high altitude, which she only completed on Monday. Normally it can take several days for the benefit of that work to kick in, and, combined with the tiredness factor, it is unlikely that she will read too much into the result.

Meanwhile, Olympic and World 100 metres champion Maurice Greene and US champion Bernard Williams were upstaged by Nigerian Deji Aliu.

The sprint had been billed as a head-to-head between Greene and Williams, but Aliu outgunned the pair to win in 10.04.

"I feel very good, in good shape, and I'm very happy with that performance," said Aliu, who clocked 10 seconds flat in winning the 100 metres at last week's Grand Prix in Greece.

Williams pipped Greene for second place in 10.10, one-hundredth of a second ahead of his fellow American in the Stade Olympique de la Pontaise.

European record holder Christine Arron lost her 100 metres unbeaten run for the season when succumbing to a fast-finishing Chandra Sturrup.

Arron finished 0.03 behind Sturrup, who chalked up a relatively easy victory in 11.12. Finishing in third place was America's Torri Edwards in 11.20.