SONIA O'SULLIVAN is still committed to challenge for the world 3,000 metres indoor championship in Paris on March 9th, despite her shock defeat in Hobart, Tasmania on Sunday.
After finishing well off the pace in a 3,000 metres race, won by the American Kate Anderson in a time of eight minutes 8.48 seconds, O'Sullivan admitted that she got it wrong in her build up.
Now she hopes to put the bitter lessons of her first 3,000 metres defeat since the 1993 World Outdoor Championships at Stuttgart to good use when she completes a five race Australian programme in the Melbourne Grand Prix meeting on Thursday where she runs in the mile.
To do so, however, she acknowledges that she must first undo the damage which saw her struggle at an early stages of the race in Hobart. "In spite of all the promises I made to myself, in spite of all the pitfalls I had identified, I still went ahead and did the wrong things in training," she said.
"After my last run I made up my mind that I would take a break from training and rest up for a few days before racing. I then went out and did precisely the reverse. Last week I did upwards of 90 miles in training but it wasn't so much that, as the hard sessions I had on the track, which blew it for me.
"I realise now that I should have taken a break and given myself a reasonable chance of recovering in time for the race. But, once you get locked into a challenging training schedule, it isn't always easy to let go.
"With all that mileage in my legs I just couldn't hope to run well on Sunday. And, by the end of the first lap, I knew only too well that I needn't have showed up for the race. At that stage my legs were already heavy and my mind so tired that I couldn't concentrate on what was happening around me.
"All those signs told me that I was having another bad day and I couldn't wait to get off the track. At the finish I was a long way behind Kate Anderson. But then I had effectively stopped running a long way out."
O'Sullivan will be having her last competitive run before the World Indoor Championships in Melbourne on Thursday.
Apart from some jogging exercises, there are no training schedules planned for the next 72 hours. She plans to remain in Australia for the next fortnight, only travelling to Paris some 72 hours before the championships start.
David Matthews, another Irish athlete currently training in Australia, did not take part in the Hobart meeting but is expected to run in the 800 metres event in Melbourne. Matthews, only recently recovered from injury, will be available for selection when the squad for Paris is chosen early next week.
