O'Sullivan
defeats Szabo in Scottish showdown
30 March 2002 - Ireland’s Sonia O’Sullivan came back from a
hard-earned seventh place in the previous weekend’s IAAF/Sport Ireland World Cross Country
Championships to dominate her longstanding rival Gabriela Szabo over five miles (8km) on
the road in Balmoral on Saturday, 30 March.
For the Irishwoman, it was her second competition since giving birth to her second daughter, Sophie on 23 December, for Romania’s Szabo, it was her first competition since last year’s IAAF World Championships and her first ever competitive outing on the roads. O'Sullivan effectively had the race sewn-up after a mile-and-a-quarter. Scooting up the only testing hill on the 3.8 kilometre circuit, the Irishwoman pursued only by Szabo split the field.
Then her arch rival running a road race for the first time ever, quickly dropped away but never threw in the towel although a five seconds gap at the halfway point increased to 17 seconds with a mile left to run.
In 2000 O'Sullivan won the Balmoral race in 24 minutes 50 seconds - only three seconds slower than world record mark Paula Radcliffe had posted at the Royal Deeside venue a year earlier. But then conditions were a lot better.
O'Sullivan said: "My plan was to go hard up the hill on the second circuit - but I found myself doing it first time around. I've learned if you can make a break early in road running you can normally keep it going.
"The wind did make it difficult and it was tough to do it. But I wasn't in the mood to hang around for anyone. I suppose I'm now a tough old woman," added the 32-year-old who gave birth to her second daughter Sophie last December.
O’Sullivan completed the course, which runs through the British Royal Family’s Balmoral Estate and is often described as one of the most beautiful road race course in Great Britain, in 25 minutes and 16 seconds, nearly half a minute ahead of the diminutive Romanian, who crossed the finish line in 25:43 and later complained about the gusting Highland winds: “The wind was very strong and blowing me everywhere,” said Szabo, who declared that she was happy to be back in competition.
“I have been doing a lot of long runs, now I will have to concentrate on my speed work, but I am happy to be racing again.”
Australian 5000m record holder Benita Johnson, clocked 25:55 to finish third. Defending champion John Mayock retained his his Tesco Italiano four kilometres title at Balmoral this afternoon after producing a thrilling sprint finish ahead of Mike Power.
Both Mayock and the Australian - runner-up last year - were given the same time of 10 minutes 59 seconds with Ian Hudspith producing a surprise performance and taking third place in 11 minutes 04 seconds.
The first half of the race was run in a slow, tactical fashion, Power forcing along the pace into a stiff breeze. Then just before the two kilometres marker Hudspith hit the front and the trio with a second Australian, Mark Thompson, broke clear of the rest of the pack.
Hudspith gallantly led until the final kilometre where Power quickly increased the pace a move which dropped the Morpeth Harrier - but not a confident looking Mayock.
Mayock waited until 200 metres from the finishing line before unleashing his deadly sprint finish. Power, the Australian 5000 metres champion, tried to get back on terms but the Yorkshireman sealed a second victory.
"I waited until the last 200 metres because it was so windy," said Mayock who in a rare cross country outing finished 23rd in last weekend's World Cross Country short course race.
The six-times AAA champion who will move up to 5000 metres on the track this summer added: "I wanted to put one over him after he beat me in Dublin last week," where Power finished 21st, two places ahead of Mayock in the four kilometres event.
"It is always dificult to lift yourself after a major Championship race and I've also had the European Indoors this year," said Mayock who won a 3000 metres bronze medal in Vienna.
"But this is a race I always wanted to win," he added after his victory a year ago and runner-up slots on two earlier occasions.
Allen Graffin produced another solid British performance when exceeding all expectations with a third place finish in the BUPA five miles race.
As expected last weekend's World Cross Country long course silver medallist John Yuda was an easy winner. The Tanzanian - sixth a year ago - clocked 22 minutes 43 seconds - a commendable time in the windy conditions.
Runner-up was European Cross Country champion Sergey Lebed. The Ukrainian who ran 22 minutes 59 seconds, stayed with Yuda until the half distance when his rival broke away.
Graffin - his twin brother Andrew placed sixth in the 4K race earlier - put in a magnificent performance and his time of 23 minutes 19 seconds carried him across the line ahead of some notable opponents including sixth placed Olympic 5000 metres champion Million Wolde.
"I'm running much better than I thought I would be at this stage of the season," said Graffin. "I couldn't match the leaders but I found myself running with Wolde. It was obvious he didn't want to share the pace so I pushed ahead on my own."
Results
Men
Tesco Italiano 4K
J Mayock (Barnsley) 10;59; 2m M Power (Australia) 10:59; 3, I Hudpsith (Morpeth) 11:04; 4, M Miles (Belgrave) 1107; 5, K Bowditch (Newham) 11:08; 6, Andrew Graffin (Belgrave) 11:11; 7, M Thompson (Australia) 11:12; 8, A Whiteman (Shaftesbury) 11:16; 9, J McCallum (Croydon) 11:19; 10, S Barden (Belgrave) 11:24; 11, R Whalley (Stoke) 11:26; 12, N Bangs Thurrock) 11:27; 13, G Taylor (Trafford) 11:31; 14, M Warmby (Newham) 11:35; 15, A O'Connor (Liverpool) 11:42; 16, S Stokes (Sale) 11:44; 17, A Renfree (Mizuno) 12:02; 18, H Radi (Morocco) 12:14.
BUPA Five Miles
J Yuda (Tanzania) 22:43; 2, S Lebed (Ukraine) 22:59; 3, Allen Graffin (Belgrave) 23:19; 4, M Rotich (Kenya) 23:34; 5, J Wild (Sale) 23:37; 6, M Wolde (Ethiopia) 23:46; 7, J Rey (Spain) 23:49; 8, B Noad (Bristol) 23:51; 9, G Stewart (Mizuno) 23:54; 10, M Vaux-Harvey (Kidderminster) 23:57; 11, A Caine (Tynedale) 24:06; 12, M Gheorge (Romania) 24:11; 13, P Evans (Belgrave) 24:16; 14, R Birchall (Birchfield) 24:18; 15, M Scaife (Chester-le-Street) 24:19; 16, C Thackery (Hallamshire) 24:23; 17, D Burrows (Birchfield) 24:28; 18, R Finch (Southampton) 24:32; 19, I Mitchell (Tipton) 24:35; 20, A Mussett (Colchester) 24:39; 21, R Gardiner (Cardiff) 24:41; 22, G Raven (Sale) 24:43; 23, N Wetheridge (Basildon) 24:48; 24, C Livesey (Preston) 24:57; 25, F McGowan (Unattached) 25:15; 26, M Cox (Salford) 25:21; 27, R Lee (Windsor) 25:51; 28, A Hunt (Cardiff) 26:05; 29, A Russell (Law) 26:09. Women
Tesco Italiano Five Miles
S O'Sullivan (Ireland) 25:16; 2, G Szabo (Romania) 25:43; 3, B Johnson (Australia) 25:55; 4, H Hussein (Tanzania) 25:59; 5, R Moroianu (France) 26:18; 6, N Harvey(Australia) 26:21; 7, A Keenan-Buckley (Ireland) 26:32; 8, L Yelling (Bedford) 26:32; 9, Y Burykina (Russia) 26:53; 10, A Wright Allen (Birchfield) 27:01; 11, L Wright (Leeds) 27:26; 12, B Hartigan (Birchfield) 27:33; 13, S Morris (Bedford) 27:36; 14, B Jenkins (Salford) 27:39; 15, D Robinson (Sutton in Ashfield) 27:42; 16, P Thackwray (Wakefield) 27:44; 17, M Dominguez (Spain) 28:12; 18, A Hutchinson (Neath) 28:26; 19, G Phillips (Kendal) 28:54; 20, C Miller (Aberdeen) 30:01; T McIntosh (Ayr Seaforth) 30:07.
