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Sonia O'Sullivan had a distinguished career as an international distance
runner, characterised by often setting herself gruelling schedules of
competing in multiple events at major championships. O'Sullivan's first
major international competition was the 1990 European Championships at
Split, where she finished 11th in the 3000m. However, O'Sullivan
improved quickly after that, and on 26 January the following year, at
Boston, she set a new world indoor record in the 5000m of 15min
17.28sec, taking more than 5 seconds off the old record. At the time,
O'Sullivan was studying accountancy at the Villanova University in the
USA, and at the World Student Games at Sheffield in July 1991, she won
the 1500m in 4min 12.14sec, and was second in the 3000m in 8min
56.55sec.
In 1992, O'Sullivan improved her personal bests in a number
of distances between 800m and 5000m, setting six Irish national records
in the process, including five in the space of 11 days in mid-August
following the Barcelona Olympic Games. At Barcelona, in the 3000m
final, O'Sullivan was always in contention, and hit the lead in the back
straight on the final lap, but she was eventually outsprinted and
finished fourth. In the 1500m, she finished only 11th in her semi-final
and did not qualify for the final.
However, the situation was somewhat
different in the following year's World Championships held in
Stuttgart. In the 3000m final on August 16, O'Sullivan finished fourth
behind a Chinese trio in 8min 33.8sec. Six days later, in the 1500m
final, O'Sullivan won the silver medal in a time of 4min 03.48sec (seen in photo above celebrating afterwards).
Only five days later, at the ISTAF meet in Berlin, O'Sullivan recorded
the season's best time over 5000m of 14min 45.92sec, which moved her to
third on the all-time world list. (Ron Casey)
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