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Keen to quickly atone for her disappointing performances at the 1996
Atlanta Olympic Games due to illness, Sonia O'Sullivan competed in her
first indoor competition for five years at the World Indoor
Championships in Paris in March 1997. Prior to that meeting, Sonia had
travelled to Australia to get some early season competition in the
Australian domestic outdoor season. O'Sullivan recorded her best result
in Canberra, on 11 January, where she won a 5000m race in 15min
10.98sec. She had entered both the 1500m and 3000m at the World
Indoors, but eventually she chose to only contest the 3000m event.
In
the final, on 8 March, O'Sullivan hit the lead in the last lap, but she
was overtaken by Rumanian Gabriela Szabo who went on to narrowly defeat
Sonia in 8min 45.75sec compared to the Irishwoman's second place time of
8min 46.19sec. Compared with the magnificent performances that she had
produced in previous years, O'Sullivan had an indifferent outdoor
season in 1997, and her best time of 8min 53.53sec over 3000m, which she
achieved in Paris on 25 June, was 7 seconds slower than the time she
had set indoors in March. Similarly, her best performance at 5000m for
the year remained the time she had set in Australia in January. At the
World Championships held in Athens, O'Sullivan produced her best 1500m
time of the year of 4min 05.31sec when she finished fourth in her
semi-final on 3 August.
In the final, held two days later, Sonia (see photo above)
was never a serious threat, and she finished 8th in 4min 07.81sec.
O'Sullivan had even greater disappointment in the 3000m where she was
the defending world champion, finishing only 7th in her heat and failing
to qualify for the final. (Ron Casey)
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