Track return not far off

Sonia O'Sullivan is not ruling out a return to track competition before the end of the current season.

O'Sullivan, in Dublin yesterday to promote her appearance in the revived Loughrea road racing festival on October 16th, confirmed that she has already had two track training sessions.

"It's a possibility that I'll have one or two races before the end of the season but I'm not making any commitments at this point," she said. "It just depends on how well I'm feeling in training."

The European 5,000 and 10,000 metres champion said that within 10 days of the arrival of her daughter, she was already back in light training.

Now only marginally above her racing weight, she will step up her training programme gradually over the coming weeks before making plans for the remainder of the season.

A week before running in Loughrea, she will be in action in the Great North Run at Newcastle, a race she won last year. Arrangements for the Loughrea event are still only being put together but it is hoped that O'Sullivan will be joined in the five-mile fun run by up to 2,500 others.

Brendan Foster, who spoke at yesterday's promotion of the event, won the first men's race in Loughrea in 1977 and was followed onto the winners' podium the following year by Sebastian Coe.