O'Sullivan to run in cross country trials in Australia

Sonia O'Sullivan is listed to take part in Friday's Australian Cross Country trials in what would be her first serious outing of the year following altitude training.

O'Sullivan, who had been training in Australia at Falls Creek since before Christmas, will compete against a number of Australian hopes, who wish to travel to Ireland for the World Cross Country Championships at Leopardstown in March.

One of the more prominent Australians taking part will be 16-year-old Olympian and 2,000 metres World junior medallist Georgie Clarke, as well as marathon star Kerryn McCann, who was eighth in the last New York marathon.

O'Sullivan will run in the women's race which takes place at the University of Ballarat at Mount Helen, New South Wales. It is over six kilometres. She has yet to decide which distance she will run with the Irish team in March.

Catherina McKiernan is viewing her athletics career in the long term rather than short term. In that respect the Cavan runner and four-times silver medallist in the World Cross Country Championships has admitted she is not even thinking of the Leopardstown event and that her focus is on resolving the hip problems that have kept her out of competitive running since early last year.

McKiernan, who said few people inquired about her health last year when the World Cross Country event was in Portugal, is not even thinking about what will be the biggest domestic athletics event on the calendar.

"When I start competing I want to be right for a long time, not a short time," she said. "I now have to take the longer view of things. It's the long haul, not the short haul. I'm not even thinking of the World Cross Country at the moment. I'm trying to get as many pain-free days' training as I can and that is all I'm currently thinking about. I'm having some pain-free days. I'd like to get it sorted and I'd like to be back."

With regard to any changes she has made or suggestions she has taken up to clear the hip injury McKiernan remains reticent.

"It is a long story and I am in the middle of it now," she said. "It has a beginning and a middle and I hope that it is going to have a happy ending. I understand that because the World Cross Country is in Ireland this year everyone is asking and wanting to know whether I will run or not. I have great respect for the public and I love running but really the race is in the back of my mind," she said.

Meanwhile indoors, Mark Carroll is listed alongside James Nolan in the prestigious Wanamaker Mile at the Millrose Games in New York on February 2nd.

Carroll won the race last year before going on to win a gold medal at 3,000 metres in the European Indoor Championships in Ghent. Carroll and Nolan were, in fact, the first two across the finish line at the Madison Square Garden event, continuing a long list of Irish winners stretching back to Ronnie Delany in the 1950s.

Carroll is hoping that a strong run in New York will augur well for the World Indoor Championships in Lisbon in March, just two weeks before the World Cross Country event, in which it is hoped he will also compete.

Another Irish runner, Daniel Caulfield, is also listed in the 800 metres while Sinead Delahunty is down to run in the women's mile. There have been 20 sub four-minute miles since 1974 by 13 athletes with Eamonn Coghlan leading the list with three.