Out of Sonia's shadow

Every major championships throws up a new face in Irish athletics, an emerging talent that goes down as a name for the future. It's been that sort of summer for Elaine Fitzgerald, improving consistently, winning a national title and reaching her first World Championships. Only it has taken her a little longer to emerge.

It was always going to be difficult for her to make her mark over 1,500 metres, an event where Sonia O'Sullivan had all but owned the Irish interest in recent years. With the extended learning period now behind her, Fitzgerald is ready to move into the spotlight.

"Even if you don't have the greatest talent, I still believe you can get there if you're prepared to work hard enough," says the 26-year-old Waterford woman.

Fitzgerald briefly flirted with success over 1,500 metres in her junior days, but instead of following the more traditional American-scholarship route, she spent her college days in Waterford. "I got all the crazy stuff out of the way then," she laughs. "But then I started to think more seriously about running and so decided to try America."

The University of Alabama is not the sort of college to turn heads, but she lowered her best time to four minutes 19.5 seconds and started knocking on the door of major championships. Then injury struck and two years of frustration began.

"There were times when I couldn't walk, let alone run," she remembers. "But I made up my mind then that nothing was going to stop me. I was too stubborn to let anything else get in the way."

So she settled into a job with a real estate company in the US and lived off hope. Once 1999 rolled around, the luck started to change. She met former Irish Olympian Maeve Kyle who suggested that her husband, Sean Kyle, take over the coaching. The Kyles have last summer.

"Linking up with Sean definitely made a huge difference," says Fitzgerald. "I didn't know what real training was before that. You can do miles all day if you want but it's the speed that makes the difference."

The first sign of the progression was seen when she had an easy win in the short-course trial for the World Cross Country Championships in Belfast last March. In the actual championships, however, she hit a muddy patch and fell. Not disheartened, she returned to the US with her eyes still fixed on Seville.

She recorded 4:09.12 seconds in Holland last month - well inside the 4:12 B standard for Seville. But before she was guaranteed her place in the Irish team she had to win the battle with Sinead Delahunty, who had also reached the B standard, for the national title. ad Delahunty, who had also reached the B standard.

As she sprinted away from Delahunty around to last lap to win her first national title it was four years of dreaming turned into reality.

All the attention is now focused on the Olympic Stadium in Seville. "I'm definitely going out there to make the semi-final. I had a final test over 800 metres last weekend and that gave me a good chance to test my finishing speed. The way I see it is everybody has an equal chance of making it.