IRELAND'S Marcus O'Sullivan has his sights on the magical loo mark as he bids to wrest the Wanamaker Mile from countryman Niall Bruton this evening in New York.
A win in under four minutes for O'Sullivan, competing in the mile staged at the Chase Millrose Games in Madison Square Garden for the 12th consecutive time, would take his tally of sub-four-minute miles combining outdoor and indoor races to 92.
He has won the Wanamaker Mile five times already, the last time in 1992, and a sixth victory would put him one behind Eamonn Coghlan's record number of wins in New York.
It would also take O'Sullivan a step closer to becoming only the third runner in history to run 100 sub-four-minute miles in their careers, equalling the feat completed by American Steve Scott and New Zealander John Walker.
"I would like to run loo sub-four-minute miles, and I think that's attainable," said the 35-year-old Irishman. "But I'm faced with an unfortunate dilemma.
"When Walker and Scott did it, it was in an era when the 1,500 metres was an aberration to run and most meets had a mile event. Now the mile is becoming an aberration, and I have to scrape and scratch to get miles to run because the sport has gone metric."
O'Sullivan, who if victorious would be tied with the great Glenn Cunningham on six Wanamaker wins, has finished second in each of the past four years behind Noureddine Morceli of Algeria in 1993, Bruton in 1994 and 1996 and Graham Hood of Canada in 1995.
Bruton will defend his title against a field including O'Sullivan and 1996 Olympic 1,500 metres bronze medallist Stephen Kipkorir of Kenya.
Four of O'Sullivan's Millrose victories were under four minutes and have helped him amass a record 47 sub-four-minute indoor miles, one more than Scott.
O'Sullivan is uncertain whether he will compete in the indoor championships next month at Paris. "It's not in my plans," he said. "But if I saw that I was coming around, if I was on my way up, if I could get my speed up I will be there. I just wish they would give back pay!"
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/YVIRIOZQ35EWRPZXR27KGMO6YU.png)