SONIA O'SULLIVAN still holds an impressive eight Irish athletics records, but at age 38 she has not given up on chasing one more. It emerged yesterday that she will run next month's Boston Marathon with the hope of qualifying for the Beijing Olympics next August.
If she succeeds in qualifying, it would be O'Sullivan's fifth consecutive Olympics, surpassing the record four she jointly holds with runners John Treacy and Marcus O'Sullivan, and javelin thrower Terry McHugh.
She has been out of competitive running for most of the past year, but enjoyed a productive training spell in Australia, where she spends several months each year at her home in Melbourne, with partner Nic Bideau, and daughters Ciara (8) and Sophie (6).
The women's marathon A-standard for Beijing is two hours and 37 minutes, and O'Sullivan's best is almost exactly eight minutes quicker - the 2:29.01 she ran in London back in 2005.
She also won the Dublin marathon in 2000, her debut at the 26.2-mile distance, in 2:35.42.
The Boston marathon takes place on April 21st, but is not known as a particularly fast course, mainly due to the notorious Heartbreak Hill approaching 21 miles. The Olympic B-standard is a more moderate 2:42.00, and probably more realistic for O'Sullivan, although the Olympic Council of Ireland insists on the A-standard only for selection.
Despite turning 38 last November, O'Sullivan has been hesitant to even contemplate retirement, or in this case, hang up her racing shoes. While it is clearly not a priority at this stage of her career, making a fifth Olympics does still excite the Cork runner, and making the start line in Beijing would be a remarkable achievement.
At her Olympic debut in Barcelona in 1992, she led the 3,000m final down the back stretch, but was narrowly out-sprinted for a medal, coming in fourth. That disappointment was made worse a year later when silver medallist Tatyana Dorovskikh of Ukraine tested positive for a banned substance.
Four years later she was overwhelming favourite in the 5,000m, but suffering from a mysterious illness, dropped out with just over two laps remaining. After winning silver in Sydney behind Romania's Gabriela Szabo, O'Sullivan again reached the 5,000m final in Athens in 2004, and made what seemed like an emotional farewell when, again suffering from illness, she was lapped by the entire field.
O'Sullivan now holds dual Irish-Australian citizenship, and although she has not yet represented Australia in competition, just last week was announced as their team coach for the World Cross Country, which takes place on March 30th in Edinburgh.
O'Sullivan had already announced her participation at the Great Ireland Run in the Phoenix Park in Dublin on April 6th.
