ATHLETICS: After yesterday's awesome display of front running in the Great North Run Sonia O'Sullivan's marathon potential has hit new heights. Any remaining doubts about her ability to go the longer distances on the roads were buried with her winning time of 67 minutes 19 seconds - a new Irish half marathon record and an improvement of almost three minutes on her own best .
Running a fast half marathon is the most reliable indication of what can come in the full marathon. O'Sullivan covered the 13.1 miles from Newcastle to South Shields like a time trial and ended up just 12 seconds short of Paula Radcliffe's course record. Radcliffe, if reminder is needed, is the world's top-ranked marathoner.
It was exactly the sort of performance O'Sullivan wanted before lining up in New York in a month's time for her first serious attempt at the marathon. And by leaving a couple of marathon specialists in her trail, as well as the much-feared World half marathon champion Berhane Adere of Ethiopia, her confidence, too, will now be rock solid.
As a race it was practically over after just three miles. O'Sullivan started to pull away with remarkable determination and with her relentless pace had soon opened a comfortable lead. At no stage was that lead threatened, and when she dropped her seventh and eighth mile times to under five minutes it was clear Catherina McKiernan's four-year-old Irish record of 67:50 was destined to be broken.
Incredibly, she passed 10 miles in 51:08 - just eight seconds outside the world best she ran for the distance last month.
Radcliffe's course record became the target as O'Sullivan approached the coastal finish. By then, however, the ceaseless front running took its toll - as did the headwinds - and a visibly tiring O'Sullivan just missed out.
Still her time was a phenomenal improvement on her previous best of 70:04 set when finishing 14th in the World half marathon last May. Her previous Great North Run victory in 1998 came in 71:50.
"I came here determined to run hard the whole way," she said afterwards. "You can't predict how tired you're going to get at the end. You just hope there's no one saving energy behind you. And I was hurting that last mile, and just ran out of energy. I never thought I would be so glad to see the finish line."
Yet there was no threat behind her as Susie Power of Australia was the surprise runner-up in 67:56, with Joyce Chepchumba of Kenya - the former London Marathon winner - even further back in third in 68:34. Fernanda Ribeiro of Portugal took fifth, with Derartu Tulu of Ethiopia, who has struggled with illness this year, sixth.
Adere's feared challenge never materialised and she could manage only 12th in 74:47. Defending champion Susan Chepkemei of Kenya dropped out in the opening miles.
O'Sullivan, though, had never taken her victory for granted: "I looked back a couple of times and there was no one there but I always felt like I was in a race. I was always thinking about someone coming up from behind, and I never thought I've definitely won the race until I got to the finish.
"The wind at the end hit me straight in my face and I had to push really hard. I was just glad there was no one else in there racing next to me because I was definitely tired at that stage. It would have been great to break Paula's record because of all she's done this year. But it was close enough for me. It was the fastest I've ever run and I'm just really happy that I won."
Surprisingly for a half marathon, O'Sullivan admitted that she hadn't taken in any water during the race. "It was something I decided with my coach Alan Storey the night before," she explained.
"I have been practising the drinking, though, and I think it will help with the tiredness towards the end of the marathon.
"But this has given me the confidence I wanted going into the marathon. The first half in New York will definitely be slower than this, and I know I'll be running at a lot more comfortable pace, around 71 minutes. I will be entering new territory after that, and I may have to run this fast in the second half. But that's what I've been training for."
Only Catherina McKiernan's marathon record of two hours 22 minutes, 23 seconds now prevents O'Sullivan from holding the complete set of Irish middle and long distance records. By breaking the half marathon mark, which McKiernan had set in the build-up to her marathon record in Amsterdam in 1998, there can be no doubt that O'Sullivan is not far away from completing that set.
As part of her final countdown to New York O'Sullivan comes home next Sunday for the Loughrea five-mile road race in Galway - now known as the Great Ireland Run.
