News
O'Sullivan second but achieves Commonwealth qualifier
2006-02-10
Sonia O'Sullivan
© Victah Sailer
Sonia O'Sullivan was beaten into second place in the Telstra Australia Commonwealth Games trials (4th February) but achieved the 5000 metres qualifying time. The Irish star granted dual nationality two weeks ago and cleared by officialdom to represent Australia at the Games in March, was beaten in Sydney by Eloise Wellings.
Wellings won easily in a time of 15:28.72 minutes while O'Sullivan shaded the qualifying standard of 15:45.00 by just 0.74 seconds.
"I just scraped in and hopefully that will be enough to gain selection," said O'Sullivan who has had a heavy training schedule in recent weeks. It was the best I could do as I have had a lack of track training," added O'Sullivan who only four weeks ago competed halfway across the world in the First Scotland Edinburgh Cross Country.
O'Sullivan who set her personal best of 14:41.02 when winning the 2000 Olympic silver medal in Sydney, refused to make any excuses for her slow time.
"The weather wasn't too hot, although it was a little windy out there,"
Advertisement
Advertisement