Third a boost for Sonia

ATHLETICS: Rarely does defeat rest easy with Sonia O'Sullivan, yet her third-place finish in the New York Women's Mini Marathon on Saturday brought much satisfaction. For a start it took a world record by the winner and a Kenyan record by the runner-up to beat her.

For O'Sullivan, her second fastest ever 10km time on the roads also brought further confirmation of her return to world-class athletics. It seems now that the European Championships in two months' time can't come around quick enough.

On the day, however, the tiny and practically unheralded Asmae Leghzaoui of Morocco turned out to be the giant-killer of the elite field. Winning the 10km race around Central Park in 30 minutes, 29 seconds, she clipped exactly 10 seconds off the previous world best set by Scotland's Liz McColgan way back in 1989.

With Lornah Kiplagat setting a Kenyan record of 30:44 in second place, O'Sullivan chased hard for a fast time and ended up a comfortable third in 31:22, a time she has only bettered once before when running her Irish record of 30:59 in Milan two years ago.

Looking at the quality of runners that finished behind O'Sullivan, including the much-fancied American Deena Drossin in sixth, the progression towards the European Championships in Munich in August is clearly on course. This latest test came after another productive spell of altitude training in the mountains of California and O'Sullivan is drifting more and more towards the defence of both her 5,000 and 10,000 metre titles.

Though O'Sullivan ran her typically steadfast sort of race, she couldn't quite match the opening surges of the Africans and it was the 25-year-old Leghzaoui who on this occasion had the greater endurance in the closing stages.

"There was not much pressure on me," said the Moroccan, who stands just five feet tall. "Nobody was expecting me as the winner but I was very confident in myself."

Certainly when Leghzaoui pulled away from the Kenyan at the five-mile mark, she looked a world beater, yet previously her main credentials included being 18th in the Olympic 10,000 metres and seventh at the World Championships last year. Just last month she could only manage 10th at the World Half Marathon in Brussels, and her $15,000 prize money was by far her top reward to date.

The next stage of O'Sullivan's preparations for Munich will be a 10,000 metres on the track. Already pre-selected for the event, she still needs a qualifying time of 32:30 for her entry to be confirmed but in this sort of form that should be a mere formality.

"I was surprised at that winning time," said O'Sullivan. "It was just a little bit faster than I am able to run right now." But the trip to New York was still an important part of her preparations.

"I still want to run really well at the European Championships in August," she said. "But I feel now I can pick and choose my races and I don't have to stick to the norm of all the Grand Prix races. I've been there and done that before, and I want to do different things. As you get older you need different things to motivate you."

Definitely joining O'Sullivan at the European Championships is Carlow's Geraldine Hendricken, who continued her sensational return to form on Saturday by winning the 1,500 metres at the Northern Ireland Championships. Her time of four minutes, 9.56 seconds knocked a full seven seconds off her previous best set eight years ago.

The Carlow schoolteacher was also well inside the Munich standard of 4:11, which was even more impressive considering she did all the running alone, despite the gusting winds. Second-placed Niamh Beirne was a long ways back in 4:18.26.

New Irish 400 metre record-holder Paul McKee dropped down a distance and won the 200 metres in 20.85 seconds, a personal best but unfortunately wind-aided. Robert Daly of Dundrum took the 400 metres in his absence, clocking 46.71 seconds.

There was also a useful 23.40 victory for Ciara Sheehy in the women's 200 metres, again inside the Munich standard but marginally wind-aided. Still her performance will impress the Irish selectors, who later today will announce the teams for the European Cup in Tallinn, Estonia, on June 22/23rd.

NEW YORK MINI MARATHON: 1 A Leghzaoui (Mar) 30:29 (World best); 2 L Kiplagat (Ken) 30:44; 3 S O'Sullivan (Irl) 31:22; 4 O Jevtic (Yug) 31:42; 5 T Dibaba (Ken) 31:44; 6 D Drossin (US) 32:08; 7 J Rhines (US) 32:19; 8 E Kuma (Eth) 32:22; 9 L Petrova (Rus) 32:30; 10 A Fernandez (Mex) 32:32.