McKiernan provides true competition

ATHLETICS/ News: Next month's Great Ireland Run in the Phoenix Park will feature another head-to-head between Sonia O'Sullivan and Catherina McKiernan for only the second time ever on home soil. Yesterday McKiernan announced her participation in the 10 kilometre race on Sunday, October 5th, following O'Sullivan's earlier commitment to the event.

"This is a race I am taking very seriously," said McKiernan, "and want to run well in. Having Sonia in there will be great, but I'm happy at the way my form is returning, and the few races I've had on the roads over the summer have brought me on enormously."

The only previous meeting between the two athletes in Ireland was in the Women's Mini Marathon last June, with O'Sullivan winning ahead of McKiernan. Since then, however, McKiernan has made notable progression by winning the Irish Runner five-mile and 10-mile challenges in July and August, also run in the Phoenix Park.

After the Great Ireland Run, McKiernan will then turn her attention to the cross-country season, where she hopes to rediscover some of the form that saw her win four successive World Championships silver medals in the early 1990s.

"I will take the cross-country season very seriously this year," she added. "The first big target will be the European Championships in Edinburgh in December, but I want to run a few of the Grand Prix races after that to try and get back to my very best.

"For the moment though I don't have any firm plans yet to run another marathon. It takes such commitment to run a marathon that you can't do anything else, and for now I'd rather run a few different cross-country races. And there is always the danger of injury as well when you train solely for the marathon."

Her participation in the Great Ireland event also rules out the World Half-Marathon Championships, which take place the day before in Villamoura, Portugal. Irish interest in that race is to be provided by Cian McLoughlin and Rosemary Ryan, the winners of the Irish half-marathon titles last month.

For O'Sullivan, meanwhile, the quest to get over last month's disappointment at the World Championships in Paris will continue this Sunday with a 5km road race in Hyde Park, close to her London home. As with last week's 10km in Richmond Park, the main opposition comes from Britain's Paula Radcliffe, who won the race, with O'Sullivan second.

Though Radcliffe was the clear winner a week ago, O'Sullivan is intent on making more of a race of it this time, with the minor illness she feels upset her performance in Paris now behind her.

There will also be an O'Sullivan-Radcliffe meeting at the Great North Run in Newcastle on September 21st - with Radcliffe confirming her participation yesterday for the half-marathon race that O'Sullivan won last year.

Also included in that line-up are the Ethiopians Derartu Tulu and Berhane Adere, but O'Sullivan has hinted that she is determined to put her nightmare in Paris behind her with the high-profile race in Newcastle an ideal occasion to once again test her form against the very best.