Television fails Africa's huge talents

I'm getting used to watching the athletics world go by without me. I have a good look on the internet everyday to see what's going on. Nick (Bideau) fills me in on what's going on in Australia, who is coming over for the summer and what is happening. Then there is the telly.

Recently it's just been marathons. Watching London, Boston and Rotterdam, it was fascinating to see how quickly the girls are running right now. The top 10 women's marathon runners are training harder and they are believing they can run much faster. Soon they'll be going under two hours 20 minutes which is amazing.

Half the time I'm watching and thinking to myself that I hope they don't do that too soon, maybe I'll get a chance to do it with them. Or before them. Always at this time of the year when you are watching the big city marathons, you get the feeling that it would be nice to run 26 miles one day. It's a great event and something that lies ahead for me. This year, for the London marathon, I watched the first half from an exercise bike in the gym, a good distraction from watching the seconds tick by as I pedalled for an hour travelling more than 30km but seeing nothing more than the walls and other empty bikes around me. I took the train to the finish line after the race to catch up on all the views and reviews of the runners and spectators.

It's tantalising. The more people you see running that fast the more you wonder. How difficult could it be? I mean you get to daydreaming about what would happen if you did all the right stuff with a good person (Alan Storey) advising you. Just how difficult could it be to just keep up and then sprint the last 200 metres. It looks very easy to watch them doing it anyway. Marathons make for great excitement. They bring a brilliant buzz to the city they are in, with the build-up in the newspapers and the TV, and then there is all that history behind them.

After the Olympics next year there might be a right time for me to try one. For the moment though I'm going to train for the 5,000 metres and 10,000 metres. I'll run a 10,000 race towards the end of this year down in Australia, I'd like to see how fast I can run, I feel like I've never really tested myself over 10,000. Then I'll know that no matter how fast anyone runs in the race I can keep up. Paula Radcliffe might decide one day to run hard from the start and I want to know that I can go with her or anybody else.

I was in Belfast last month for the World Cross Country Championships. Great fun, too. I would have loved to run there. You could sense how exciting it would have been to be challenging for a medal, with all the Irish flags appearing from every corner of the park. In that way it was disappointing not to be involved, maybe this great event will be back in Ireland again. It would be a dream come true for me to emulate John Treacy's exploits in Limerick 20 years ago.

It was disappointing, too, that RTE didn't show the races live. The world cross country is still a big event, whether I'm running or Catherina is running. Just because an Irish person wins or does well shouldn't determine whether you show it or not. There are plenty of people in Ireland who have a love of athletics and running. They would have loved to have seen it.

Athletics suffers that way. Last year I thought we missed out badly. Very little grand prix races were shown, even though there was good exposure given to the Europeans. This year again I notice there is not going to be much coverage. It's difficult for people to have a connection with athletics if it isn't on television. Soccer seems to be on every night of the week and even if you aren't into it in a big way, you still get familiar with soccer players and it makes you take an interest. When it comes to running, though, the public don't know who is who.

If Paul Tergat walked down the street in Dublin very few would know who he was. That's after five cross country wins, which makes him one of the greatest athletes of our time. Sometimes I wonder what the reason really is. Athletics doesn't come across like it used to when Steve Cram, Seb Coe and Steve Ovett were there, or when John Treacy and Eamonn Coughlan ran. They got coverage and people had more of a connection with them, which was good for athletics. African athletes haven't been given the same chance.

That comes down to commentators and the way they rarely present African runners as individuals. They say here come the Kenyans. They pass the Ethiopians. They don't give you a name. They don't describe how they run, or tell you the things about their lives which make them interesting people.

I think it's a very impersonal approach. When I hear it I cringe and feel for the runners. I know the athletes and even those I don't know well, I'm familiar with how they run. I would think commentators should know the same things just from watching and being interested.

Instead you get this sense that they go by the number on the vest and they have to look up the number and by the time they get that done it's too late for any details. It doesn't help runners and it doesn't help athletics. If they referred to me always as the Irish girl it would be annoying and demeaning, but I'm lucky I get the full title. I'm Sonia O'Sullivan from Ireland.

With good coverage you can see athletes becoming better known and making an impact. Joyce Chepchumba, who won the London marathon this year, has at last connected with people. She's run it four times, always ran well, and only after she won a great race this year did she become known and recognised.

Back on the internet I didn't follow the Mary Slaney case that closely over the past few weeks. My immediate reaction was that it was one of those horrible testosterone ratio cases. It's is a very grey area which even we clean athletes have doubts about. There is always something borderline when it comes to testing. Caffeine was grey for a while, but that seems to have died down, and the testosterone-epitestosterone ratio argument is back again. The testosterone thing is difficult because it seems like it's impossible to prove a case whichever side you come from. There are a few different cases out there now most of them involve women.

You think sometimes when people come to test, you should have all your records out detailing everything you have done recently, what pills you have taken, what you haven't taken, your vitamins, your irons - you nearly have to keep a diary of everything you eat and drink and touch and hand that over. If you just read the headlines on a testosterone-epitestosterone case, you can't point the finger and say definitely cheating or not cheating. There are so many variables. It fluctuates. I have no idea for instance what my usual ratio is.

If they came back and said my ratio was over six to one for some reason, I just wouldn't know if it was generally high anyway, or if it went up and down according to what day of the week it was. It would be interesting to find out. I might ask next time I'm down in the National Coaching Centre in Limerick, just out of interest.

Testosterone ratios wouldn't be something a clean athlete would normally be testing for. We do take tests, though, to help with training. Usually early in a season I'd get tested for lactate levels which tell me what heart-rate to train at before I start producing lactic acid. This determines how fast I run on my easy, medium and hard training days. It is a great guideline, especially as I don't meet my coach for training every day. That process will start at a different time of the year for me this year. I've been looking at calendars and making plans and have committed myself to running the Great North Run on October 9th. That's a half-marathon. I know I'll definitely finish it.

Don't ask how quickly. I have a new routine at the moment, some running, some biking, some weights and some swimming. I get up at 7.30, about two hours earlier than I used to. Pretty soon I'll be getting up at all hours, so I may as well prepare. I go swimming in a pool nearby. Very genteel. Lots of old ladies who move through the water and never get a drop of water on their silver hair. They come out looking perfect.

I have a swimming programme. I did some research in a magazine and found a programme that keeps me in the pool for about 40 minutes. I was using one of those kickboards to entertain myself and this fella said to me: "What are you training for?" It was an awkward question. Eventually I said. "Hmm, I don't know." Paused again. And finally. "Normally I'd be running. I'm better at that."