Sonia O’Sullivan made the ideal start to her World Indoor Championship campaign in Lisbon this morning.
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Sonia O'Sullivan
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O’Sullivan won her first round heat in the women’s 3000m with the fastest qualifying time of 8 min 55.79 sec.
The 31-year-old marginally beat her main rival and Olympic 5000m gold medallist Gabriel Szabo from Romania into second and Russia’s Olga Yegorova in third.
Speaking to ireland.comafter the race, Irish team coach Mick McKeon confirmed: "Sonia ran a comfortable race. She is very pleased with the run and knows she is in good shape."
Mark Carroll also qualified from the second men’s 3000m heat. After leading the early part of the race Carroll eased off to finish seventh in a time of 7 min 53.64sec. He qualifies for the next stage as one of the fastest losers.
Peter Coghlan was next up for Ireland in the men’s 60m hurdles. The 25-year-old qualified in third place from the third heat. His time of 7.73sec was enough to secure one of the four automatic qualifying spots from each heat. However, Coghlan finished a disappointing sixth in this afternoon's semi-final.