Sonia O'Sullivan is preparing to sacrifice home comforts at Christmas to ensure that she arrives in Dublin in prime condition for the World Cross Country Championships at Leopardstown in March.
O'Sullivan, who lives in Melbourne in Australia, plans to start her build-up to the cross country season with her customary six-week spell of altitude training. However, she will break her usual pattern by spending the festive season in the mountains, together with her partner Nick and daughter Ciara.
"After giving it a lot of thought we've decided against going back to Melbourne for the holiday," she said. "It means that we won't have the problem of settling back in for a second time and that should help my training."
O'Sullivan will make her first appearance in the new Australian track season at the Emile Zatopek festival of running at Melbourne on December 4th, where she plans to run in the 10,000 metres.
She hopes to post a time close to the national record of 30 minutes 53.37 seconds she set in the Olympic final at Sydney.
She will run a number of track races in Australia at different distances to polish her preparations for the Dublin showpiece.
Meanwhile, the Irish teams to compete in the European Cross Country Championships will be selected immediately after the national inter-counties championships at Dungarvan tomorrow. Seamus Power is defending the men's senior title and among those in contention for the women's championship will be Rosemary Ryan, Valerie Vaughan and Anne Keenan Buckley.
