Posted: September 12, 2007

Athletics: Sonia O’Sullivan runs real,- BERLIN-MARATHON

Sonia O’Sullivan will run the 34th real,- BERLIN-MARATHON on 30th September. For the 37 year-old, who has dual citizenship of Ireland and Australia, this will probably be her last race in Germany. O’Sullivan had announced that she is going to retire from the sport. Among her rivals at the real,- BERLIN-MARATHON will be the defending champion Gete Wami (Ethiopia). For many years Sonia O’Sullivan belonged to the world’s best long distance runners on the track. In 1995 she became the first 5,000 m world champion, after she had won a silver medal at the 1,500 m two years earlier in Stuttgart (Germany). She won another silver at the Olympics in 2000 in the 5,000 m final. Another of a number of highlights came in 1998, when Sonia O’Sullivan took both gold medals at the World Cross Country Championships (short and long distance). In that same year she also won two golds at the European Championships (5,000 and 10,000 m). During her outstanding career Sonia O’Sullivan has broken a series of records. Her personal best at 2,000 m of 5:25.36 minutes from 1994 still stands as a world record today. She could not quite transform her stunning track performances to the marathon and has a personal best of 2:29:01 from the Flora London Marathon 2005. Sonia O’Sullivan has two daughters with her partner and manager Nic Bideau. They live in Melbourne (Australia). Entry for the real,- BERLIN-MARATHON is closed since the registration cap of 40,000 runners was reached some weeks ago. Further information is available at: www.real-berlin-marathon.com. Subscribe to the Runner's Web Weekly Digest