Sonia gets early Szabo warning

Sonia O'Sullivan says it was less the sound of running legs than the gush of warm air rushing past her which caught her attention during a training session on the tiny island of South Strovboke off Australia's Gold Coast on Wednesday.

O'Sullivan was warming down on the track after a routine session when, unannounced, world champion Gabriela Szabo swept by at a different pace without as much as a sideways glance.

Szabo is the tiny Romanian who in recent years has usurped the kingdom which the Irish woman once ruled almost unchallenged. Now, in spite of earlier statements that she was concentrating on the 1,500 metres championship here, she is again threatening her hopes of claiming the 5,000 metres title in 10 days time.

At this advanced point in the countdown the battle is as much psychological as physical and O'Sullivan, herself involved in mind games, has no doubt that her arch rival was now intent on making a point in the relative solitude of an island measuring just three kilometres in length.

"It was just a little bit childish but the message was clear enough," she said. "At one point, I considered running after her but then I thought the only running which counts will be that in front of 110,000 spectators in the Olympic stadium."

Together with her partner Nick Bideau and baby daughter Ciara, she has been living in Ron Clarke's (an Australian athletics legend) private villa on the hideaway island. And with the help of the Jamaican 400 metres runner Sandy Richards, who acted as babysitter while they were out training, she believes that the calm before the storm has been invaluable.

To put it into perspective, Marie Jose Perec has been so besieged by the French press that she was forced to leave her luxury hotel to move into the athletes' village. And Cathy Freeman, the heroine of Australian sport just now, quit Sydney for the relative tranquillity of Melbourne this week only to be pursued there by hordes of local journalists.

To that extent, the Irish champion has been lucky. But all will change this morning when she travels to Sydney to carry the Irish flag during an opening ceremony which the organisers are billing as one of the most colourful in the long history of the Games.

This is her third Olympics but the first in which she will participate in the march past of competitors and officials. And she is anticipating the experience with some relish.

"I've watched it on television, of course, but it will be a great honour to carry the tricolour around the stadium," she said. "By all accounts, it's heavy enough, so I think I will be excusing myself to go to the ladies and hand it to somebody else to hold for the rest of the ceremony."

Another first for O'Sullivan will be a night in the athletes' village, while Nick and Ciara prepare to join her parents, John and Mary, in the house they have rented in the city.

"I'll also probably stay in the village on the nights before and evenings of my races," she said. "Because of the traffic problems in the city it makes sense to jump on the team coach and have a police escort back to the village."

During her stay on the Gold Coast she was able to enjoy the benefits of living in close proximity to her coach Alan Storey, who is working with the British team just half an hour's journey away on the mainland.

There, the British work behind locked gates but thanks to a little subterfuge O'Sullivan was able to gain admission and reflect with Storey on the progress achieved since setting down here and what remains to be done in the days ahead.

Just now, she projects all the signs of an athlete at peace with herself, a lot more composed that at the corresponding stage of her build up to the Atlanta Games and visibly encouraged by a couple of good performances at Runaway Bay last Sunday.