Sonia O'Sullivan finished last of 15 competitors in the Olympic 5000m final in Athens tonight. It was an undeserving finish to a the Cobh athlete's superb career, with O'Sullivan being lapped by almost the entire field by the end of the race.
She eventually finished in a time of 16 mins 20.9 seconds. O'Sullivan, however, did get a standing ovation from the large Irish contingent in the crowd as she battled on to complete the final lap on her own.
The race was won by Ethopian athlete Meseret Defar, with Isabella Ochichi of Kenya taking silver in 14 min 48.19 seconds and Tirunesh Dibaba of Ethiopia the bronze in 14 min 51.83 seconds.
Afterwards, O'Sullivan refused to confirm that this would be her last Olympics. "I love training and I love competing," said O'Sullivan. "Right now is an extremely emotional time and it's not the right time to make a decision about my future. I thought something special was going to happen out there tonight, but it just wasn’t there. Some days it’s there and some days it’s not, and tonight, it wasn’t."
Her coach and husband, Nick Bideau, confirmed that O'Sullivan had been struggling with a stomach bug in the hours before the race. He said: "Sonia has had a bad stomach problem all day and in truth should not have run but this was the Olympic final. She was very sick after the race."
Filed by Ciaran Cronin
