Sonia shows tough streak to win

ATHLETICS: Even Sonia O'Sullivan appeared a little surprised at her total dominance of the women's road race in Balmoral, Scotland, on Saturday. As a statement of her intentions for the summer track season it couldn't have been more intimidating.

Still just three months back training, O'Sullivan simply ran away from her long-standing rival Gabriela Szabo over the five-mile race, winning in a time of 25 minutes, 16 seconds. The Romanian was a distant second in 25:43.

O'Sullivan now travels to America for a three-week training block before finalising her plans for the track season. But the next big target will be the European Championships in Munich in early August, where O'Sullivan is likely to defend one or both of her 5,000 and 10,000 metres titles won in Budapest in 1998.

Szabo will also have her eye on one of those titles, and although she too was coming off a winter break (though not through pregnancy), the nature of this defeat at the hands of O'Sullivan may have her thinking more about the 1,500 metres. Surprisingly this was Szabo's first ever road race.

"My plan was to go hard up the hill on the second circuit, but I found myself doing it first time around," said O'Sullivan. "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."

O'Sullivan thus repeated her victory of 2000, then part of her build-up to the Sydney Olympics where only Szabo managed to get the better of her: "Right now I'm not further ahead than I expect to be," she added. "I'm probably just where I should be. But it is good to know I'm not behind."

Australia's Benita Johnson clocked 25:55 to finish third - although the previous week in Leopardstown she was ahead of O'Sullivan when taking fourth in the World Cross Country short-course race. Ireland's Anne Keenan-Buckley ran well to finish seventh, beating the best of the British athletes.

Szabo has rarely been so comprehensively beaten, and complained about the gusting Highland wind: "The wind was very strong and blowing me everywhere. I have been doing a lot of long runs, now I will have to concentrate on my speed work."

BALMORAL RESULTS: Women's Five Miles: 1, S O'Sullivan (Ire) 25:16; 2, G Szabo (Rom) 25:43; 3, B Johnson (Aus) 25:55; 4, H Hussein (Tanz) 25:59; 5, R Moroianu (Fra) 26:18; 6, N Harvey (Aus) 26:21; 7, A Keenan-Buckley (Ire) 26:32; 8, L Yelling (Bedford) 26:32. Men's 4K: 1, J Mayock (Barnsley) 10;59; 2, M Power (Aus) 10:59; 3, I Hudpsith (Morpeth) 11:04; Five Miles: 1 J Yuda (Tanz) 22:43; 2, S Lebed (Ukr) 22:59; 3, Allen Graffin (Belgrave) 23:19.