Sonia O' Sullivan had to settle for a fifth place finish over the mile at the Goodwill Games in New York. Her time of four minutes 26.19 was almost six seconds slower than the winning time of Russia's Svetlana Masterkova.

O'Sullivan never really got into the race as Regina Jacobs of the US did most of the early running and just failed to hold off the fast-finishing Masterkova. The Olympic champion's winning time of 4:20.39 was the second fastest of the year. Another American, Suzy Hamilton, was third. O'Sullivan's next outing will be at this weekend's National Championships at Santry. O'Sullivan will probably run the 1,500 metres, although her long-term goal is still the 5,000 m at the European Championships in Budapest next month.

Mark Carroll will be the third and final Irish athlete in action in New York when he runs in the 5,000m this evening. It is only his second outing at the distance this season after his 13:20.84 victory in Cork last month - the fastest ever 5,000 on Irish soil.

With top Kenyans Luke Kipkosgei and Tom Nyariki in the line-up - both sub-13 minute men - as well as World Championship silver medallist Khalid Boulami of Morocco, Carroll will have to be on his toes. All the indications, however, are that the Cork runner is coming into form at the right time.

"I haven't raced that much this season, but the Europeans were always the prime objective," says Carroll. "It's going very well now and I'm beginning to get rolling. I'd like to get down to 13:00 which is basically what you need if you want to make an impact at the top meets."

Carroll's best of 13:13.94 from three years back ranks him among the top Europeans at the moment and last week he ran 3:38.12 for 1,500m at the Can-Am meeting in Montreal. He runs over that distance at the National Championships, where Niall Bruton and Shane Healy will both be looking for a qualifying time for Budapest.