Sonia O'Sullivan

O'Sullivan finished the race 4th in a time of 8:33.8.

Six days later she won the silver medal in the 1500 m in a time of 4:03.48, again behind a Chinese athlete.

Five days after the championships, at the ISTAF meet in Berlin, O'Sullivan recorded the season's best time over 5000 m of 14:45.92, which moved her to third on the all-time world list.

Soon afterwards she closed the year by winning the Grand Prix Final for the 3000 m and finished 2nd in the Mile.

She finished the Grand Prix season in 2nd place in the Woman's Overall competition.

Sonia O'Sullivan (born 28 November 1969) is an Irish former track and field athlete.

She won a gold medal in the 5000 metres at the 1995 World Championships, and a silver medal in the 5000 metres at the 2000 Olympic Games.

She completed her leaving certificate in 1987.

O'Sullivan's first major international competition was the 1990 European Championships at Split, where she finished 11th in the 3000 m. However, O'Sullivan improved quickly after that, and on 26 January the following year, at Boston, she set a new world indoor record in the 5000 m of 15:17.28, taking more than 5 seconds off the old record.

At the time, O'Sullivan (who attained a sporting scholarship) was studying accountancy at Villanova University in the US, and at the World Student Games at Sheffield in July 1991, she won the 1500 m Gold Medal in 4:12.14, and the silver medal in the 3000 m in 8:56.55.

She won the Honda Sports Award as the nation's top female cross country runner in 1991–92.

At the start of 1992, she finished 7th in the World Cross Country Championships.

In 1992, O'Sullivan improved her personal bests in a number of distances between 800 m and 5000 m, setting six Irish national records in the process, including five in the space of 11 days in mid-August following the Barcelona Olympic Games.

At Barcelona, in the 3000 m final, O'Sullivan was always in contention, and hit the lead in the back straight on the final lap, but she was eventually outsprinted and finished fourth.

Narrowly missing out on an Olympic medal was made all the more frustrating when the silver medalist from the race Tatyana Dorovskikh tested positive for a banned substance the following year. In the 1500 m, she finished only 11th in her semi-final and did not qualify for the final.

She finished 1992 by winning the Grand Prix Final for the 5000 m.

During 1993, O'Sullivan established herself as one of the world's top middle-distance runners.

By the time the World Championships came around, she was the clear favourite for both the 3000 m and 1500 m. However her hopes in the 3000 m were dashed by the performances of three Chinese athletes who would later in the year go on to smash the world record multiple times.

The winner, Qu Yunxia, finished in a championship record of 8:28.71, with Zhang Linli and Zhang Lirong following in second and third respectively.

A month later Qu would go on to set a 1500 m world record of 3:50.46.

This moved her to fifth on the all-time world list, behind the four Chinese runners who had set their personal bests at the 1993 National Championships in Beijing.

During 1994, O'Sullivan dominated international distance running.

She set the fastest time of the year in four events, the 1500 m, 1 mile, 2000 m and 3000 m, and the second fastest time in the 5000 m. On 8 July, at Edinburgh, she broke the 2000 m world record, setting a new time of 5:25.36.

As well as her 1995 World title, she won three gold medals at the European Championships, in the 3000 m (1994), 5000 m (1998) and 10,000 m (1998), and is a two-time World Cross Country Champion.

O'Sullivan won silver medals in the 5000 m and 10,000 m at the 2002 European Championships, and competed at her fourth Olympic Games in 2004.

She is known for her dramatic kick, clocking 28-second final 200 m splits in some of her races.

She is the one of two women (the other Tirunesh Dibaba) who won the short and long course World Cross Country title at the same championship (1998 in Marrakesh).

Born in Cobh, County Cork, O'Sullivan was educated in Cobh Community College.

Her 2000 m world record of 5:25.36, set in 1994 stood until 2017.

O'Sullivan first came to prominence when winning the 1500 m at the 1991 Universiade, before going on to finish fourth in the 3000 m final at the 1992 Olympic Games.

She then won a silver medal in the 1500 m at the 1993 World Championships.

She was the favourite for the 5000 m title at the 1996 Olympic Games but dropped out of the final due to illness.

This record lasted until 2002, when Gabriela Szabo bettered it.

Only three days later, at Nice, O'Sullivan recorded the year's fastest 1500 m, a personal best, of 3:59.10, and only four days after that, she won the mile at the Bislett Games in Oslo, in a time of 4:17.25.

This was the season's best, and it moved O'Sullivan to fourth on the all-time world list.

All four of these times were also new Irish records, and after this two-week period of record breaking, O'Sullivan became a clear favourite to win any event she chose to compete in at the European Athletics Championships in Helsinki in August.

At Helsinki, O'Sullivan elected to only contest the 3000 m, with her main opposition expected to come from Yvonne Murray.

In the final, on 10 August, Murray set the pace with O'Sullivan on her shoulder.

This record stood until Genzebe Dibaba of Ethiopia broke it on 7 February 2017.

The next week, in London, she broke the European record for the 3000 m, beating Britain's Yvonne Murray, and setting the year's fastest time of 8:21.64.