One that got away: Sonia O'Sullivan narrowly lost her 5,000m final to Gabriela Szabo of Romania
|
THERE were no tears in defeat. No regrets, no recriminations, no if-onlys. Sonia O'Sullivan ran the best 10,000m of her career, nearly 20 seconds inside the Irish record, but in an Olympic final of extraordinary quality it was only good enough for sixth. No shame in that.
After the suspense of Monday night when O'Sullivan's fate hung in the balance until the final strides her part in this race had a simple and linear plot. On the sixth and seventh laps she became detached from the leading group and with 15 laps remaining of the 25 it was obvious that a medal would be outside O'Sullivan's reach.
Long before the end she had come to terms with her circumstances and when she crossed the line she put thoughts of herself aside and went to Paula Radcliffe. The British runner had led for all but three laps of the race only to be blitzed on the final circuit and run out of the medals in fourth. As she lay on the track, exhausted and distressed, O'Sullivan went to pick her up and offered words of consolation. From her own experience O'Sullivan knows what devastation the Games can
bring.
Before she left the track a smile had come to O'Sullivan's face and for the next three quarters of an hour she spoke easily about the race, her demeanour never once seeming like a pretence. In everything she said there was a degree of acceptance and a certainty that she had left nothing behind in the effort.
"I'm not disappointed but I'm not over the moon either," she said. "I thought a lot about this race and I thought I was going to win, I really did, but there were girls who were able for a lot more than me tonight. I definitely have a lot to learn [about this distance, only her fourth 10,000m on the track]. I'm only an amateur at this. I've never really run a solid 10,000m race - nothing really fast on the track. Paula [Radcliffe], she's done plenty. I haven't run a lot of very fast times this year. People like Wami [the silver medalist] has run a 14:30 [for the 5,000] this year so she obviously is used to being in fast races. I haven't done something like that for a long time.
"I wasn't going to win that race today from a long way out. But the people in the stands continued to shout for me and push me along the way and when you're out of the race and kind of all alone out there you hear it even more and you've got to keep going and put in as big an effort as you can."
Since Monday night she has had to keep a check on celebrating her silver medal, now she can let loose. She was asked what plans she might have; she hinted at decadence: "I'm going to have lots and lots of Cadbury's chocolate - it just depends how big the box is they send me."
DENIS WALSH
Sunday Times
