Athletics: In assembling what is arguably the strongest women's marathon field in history it was inevitable the London organisers would want to include Sonia O'Sullivan. Although now aged 35 and her best days behind her, O'Sullivan has always promised to run one more marathon before calling time on her great career.
So yesterday she was officially included among the leading 14 elite women who will contest the London event on April 17th - which this year celebrates its 25th anniversary. Yet O'Sullivan has also stated she will only be on the startling line if her training over the next 12 weeks goes to plan.
As usual O'Sullivan is spending this time of the year in Melbourne, and London is her only race planned for the immediate future. She has, however, endured some injury problems over the past few months which forced her to miss the cross-country season, and clearly a high level of training is required between now and April 17th.
"I've always wanted to run the London marathon," she said, "and I'm working on getting myself fit enough to run a good race. But I only plan on participating if I can complete the training required to get me in great shape. But I am now recovered from the injury problems and building on my fitness, and looking forward to doing so for the next 12 weeks."
O'Sullivan joins a truly world-class field, led by world record holder Paula Radcliffe and the Kenyan Susan Chepkemei, who pushed Radcliffe all the way to the finish line in the New York marathon last November. While clearly not a race O'Sullivan is expected to win, it does give her another chance to run a top-class marathon - and perhaps end her career on something of a high.
Her previous two outings over the 26.2-mile distance proved contrasting experiences. Just five weeks after winning her silver medal over 5,000 metres at the Sydney Olympics, O'Sullivan showed up for the Dublin Marathon and despite the horrendously conditions led from the start to win comfortably in two hours, 35 minutes, 42 seconds.
Two years later she signed up for her first big city marathon, and headed to New York in November of 2002. While her build-up was impressive, and included an Irish half marathon record of 67:19 in the Great North Run, she never figured when the race got going and struggled home in 12th place in 2:32.06.
Breaking the 2:30 barrier will be the least of her ambitions in London, although it's hard to see her approaching the Irish record of 2:22.23, which Catherina McKiernan ran in Amsterdam in November of 1998. If O'Sullivan does break it she will hold the complete hand of Irish distance running records from 800 metres to the marathon. McKiernan, incidentally, will also be in London that weekend as one of the former winners - with her 1998 victory one of the crowning moments of her career.
The men's elite field is equally impressive, and includes Olympic champion Stefano Baldini, World champion Jaouad Gharib of Morocco, and world record holder Paul Tergat of Kenya.
ELITE WOMEN'S FIELD FOR LONDON MARATHON (including best times): Paula Radcliffe (Bri) 2:15:25WR; Sun Yingjie (Chn) 2:19:39; Tegla Loroupe (Ken) 2:20:43; Margaret Okayo (Ken) 2:20:43; Lyudmila Petrova (Rus) 2:22:33; Susan Chepkemei (Ken) 2:23:12; Joyce Chepchumba (Ken) 2:23:22; Constantina Tomescu (Rom) 2: 23:35; Salina Kosgei (Ken) 2:24:32; Albina Ivanova (Rus) 2:25:35; Liz Yelling (Bri) 2:30:58; Sonia O'Sullivan (Irl) 2:32:06; Tracey Morris (Bri) 2:33:52; Benita Johnson (Aus) No mark.
