Sophie O’Sullivan became a national champion yesterday after winning the women’s 1500m final at the 123.ie National Senior Track and Field Championships at Morton Stadium.
In a packed field, O’Sullivan took the lead early on, which ended up being a key factor in her dominating the race as she led from start to finish to beat Carla Sweeney and Madison Mooney, who finished 2nd and 3rd respectively.
The 22 year-old running for Ballymore Cobh AC, faced pressure from Mooney around the final bend but extended her stride in the final 100m and finished comfortably in front of her competitors, with Sweeney pipping Mooney on the line to take silver.
O’Sullivan finished the race with a time of 4:20.45, and having already qualified for the Olympics prior to this weekend, she’ll heading to Paris as a national champion, alongside Sarah Healy who took gold in the women’s 800m event.
Léigh an scéal seo trí Ghaeilge ar Liathróidí.ie brúigh anseo.
Relief for ‘very happy’ mam Sonia O’Sullivan as she reacts to her daughter’s 1500m win
It was a familiar surname that ended on top of the timesheets for the 1500m final, and Sonia O’Sullivan was at Morton Stadium with RTE to give her live reaction to her daughter Sophie’s new title as national champion.
When you have such a big field of 15 athletes, and they’re going so slow, well relatively slow I suppose, it ends up a bit of a lottery.
But Sophie, she had a bit of instruction going out there today, and I think that’s really important - when you’re in a race like that, is that you have something that you really focus on.
The one thing was to stay out of trouble, and one way of doing that with such a big field was to be in the lead.
It’s not too windy so that wasn’t gonna be a factor there, and then when you get to 200m [to go], try and get 30 seconds or less and she was 29.7 so that was perfect.
Sophie O'Sullivan becomes the women's 1500m national champion - much to her mam's relief! #RTEsport pic.twitter.com/LWimUBrGbq
— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) June 30, 2024
Safe to say Sophie timed her run to perfection to secure that gold, and had her mam’s approval on her approach to the race.
They met on the podium after the race in fact, as Sonia presented her daughter with her medal.
30 June 2024; Sophie O'Sullivan of Ballymore Cobh AC, Cork, is presented with her women's 1500m gold medal by her mother, Olympian Sonia O'Sullivan during day two of the 123.ie National Outdoor Senior Championships at Morton Stadium in Santry, Dublin. Photo by Sam Barnes/Sportsfile
O’Sullivan’s attention will turn to the Olympics now, where she will compete in the women’s 1500m alongside Ciara Mageean and Sarah Healy for Ireland.
