Sonia "I’ve had it"

Sonia O’Sullivan gave a tearful farewell to Irish fans on her final lap of the women’s 5000m final, finishing in last place.

Mon, 23 Aug, 2004 - 21:35

Sonia O’Sullivan gave a tearful farewell to Irish fans on her final lap of the women’s 5000m final, finishing in last place.

The Cobh athlete recorded a time of 16 minutes and 20.90 seconds – over one and half minutes slower than her silver medal run in Australia.

The former world champion had to endure the ignominy being lapped by the race leaders with two laps remaining, she carried on, the emotion of the event clearly affecting her when she ran her final lap alone.

The gold medal went to Meseret Defar of Ethiopia, while Kenya’s Isabella Ochichi took the silver. Tirunesh Dibaba, Defar’s compatriot, finished third.

An emotional O’Sullivan admitted: “I’ve had it”, but vowed to regroup and look to so see what the future had in store for her.

“I thought something special was going to happen out there tonight, but it just wasn’t there,” said O’Sullivan. “Some days it’s there and some days it’s not, and tonight, it wasn’t”.

Asked if she had any explanation for her brave but disappointing run, she said: “I haven’t been feeling well in the last few days, but I’m not using that as an excuse though”.

The athlete paid tribute to the Irish fans in the stadium however, saying that without their presence “I I don't think I would have finished the race”.

Women’s 5000m Final standings:

1 Meseret Defar (Eth) 14:45.65

2 Isabella Ochichi (Ken) 14:48.19

3 Tirunesh Dibaba (Eth) 14:51.83

4 Yelena Zadorozhnaya (Rus) 14:55.52

5 Joanne Pavey (Gbr) 14:57.87

6 Gulnara Samitova (Rus) 15:02.30

7 Irina Mikitenko (Ger) 15:03.36

8 Yingjie Sun (Chn) 15:07.23

9 Huina Xing (Chn) 15:07.41

10 Sentayehu Ejigu (Eth) 15:09.55

11 Margaret Maury (Fra) 15:09.77