Ireland's Sonia O'Sullivan has prioritised victory, not records, as she prepares for Sunday's New York City Marathon. Running faster than two hours, 22 minutes and 23 seconds would see the Cobh native hold every Irish record from 800 metres to the marathon. But O'Sullivan said: "Of course I'd be happy to beat records such as the Irish record or the course record, but I don't really focus on them. The priority is to compete well and try to win the race."
But O'Sullivan has been in top form recently, setting a world 10-mile record and winning the BUPA Great North Run in an Irish half-marathon best time of 67:19 - suggesting she can better Catriona McKiernan's Irish marathon record achieved four years ago in Amsterdam.
The main competition is likely to come from defending NYC champion Margaret Okayo, other world-class Kenyan distance stars Lornah Kiplagat and Joyce Chepchumba, and Australia's Commonwealth gold medallist Kerryn McCann.
A low-key victory two years ago in Dublin saw O'Sullivan first across the line in two hours 35 minutes and 42 seconds. The Cobh woman said: "People tell me it's a hard course. They told me the course for the mini-marathon 10 kilometres which I ran in June was hard - and the winner ran a world record. I guess I'll find out how hard it is on Sunday. I don't consider it much of a factor as I've prepared for a hard race and the course is the same for all the runners."
She added: "There are plenty of good marathon runners in the field. A lot of them have won big marathons before. If this were a five-kilometre race, I'd be very confident of beating them all. But as this is an event I'm new at, I'm going to respect all those with good records at the distance. I think I'll have plenty of time in the first hour or so to study the form and decide then which runners I should rate."
Filed by James Boylan
