ATHLETICS: Irish medal hopes at this month's World Cross Country Championships in Dublin shouldn't be based on unrealistic expectations from Sonia O'Sullivan, according to team manager Jerry Kiernan.
O'Sullivan gave birth to her second daughter 10 weeks ago and has gradually been returning to full fitness. But a final decision to compete in the Leopardstown event on March 23rd-24th will be made only after she runs in Sunday's short-course trials at the ALSAA course Dublin.
"If Sonia runs well on the day then definitely Ireland can win team medals," said Kiernan, who was speaking at yesterday's announcement that Bord Fáilte had agreed to be the event's title sponsors.
"But we shouldn't be expecting too much from her because she only had her baby such a short while ago. If she does decide to run and makes the top 10 or even the top 15, then that will be a tremendous performance considering everything."
Kiernan also expressed his concern at the staging of Sunday's 4km short-course trials at ALSAA. Last Sunday week the long-course trials on the same course were run under atrociously muddy conditions, and Kiernan feels it would be in everyone's interest to hold the trials at a different venue.
"I sent a person up to ALSAA on Sunday and he came back and said it was only marginally better than the week before. All it needs is one bad night of rain and the course will be as bad again. And from Wednesday on the forecast is wet.
"So I would be in favour of moving the races to another course. What you try to do now is to mirror the Leopardstown situation. No matter how inclement the weather is between now and the end of March, the course up there won't be that bad."
The worry, says Kiernan, is that O'Sullivan will be forced to race under sticky, muddy conditions that won't truly reflect her conditioning ahead of Leopardstown.
"ALSAA is a great course when the weather is good. But if you're slopping around in mud on all those tight bends it's only going to suit the mud runners and not the more rangy athletes.
"We shouldn't be stuck to ALSAA just because we've always said ALSAA. If that course is cut up again it won't be a fair test, and we should be flexible enough to switch to somewhere like the Phoenix Park that can take bad weather, and which will more mirror the conditions we're going to have in Leopardstown."
Kiernan, though, is still confident that by concentrating on the short-course race the senior women can win team medals.
"We were sixth last year in Ostend and yet had to go back to 79th for our fourth placing. Sonia was effectively missing last year, Rosemary Ryan was missing, and Breda Dennehy was missing. So three of our top girls weren't there.
"If we get everyone running to form here I would think they could finish at least fourth.
"On the men's side, a top-10 team placing is more realistic, but there's nothing wrong with that. In my opinion athletics is one of only two sports that are truly global. The other is soccer. So if we are to make the top 10 in the senior men then that is a major achievement."
