O’Sullivan on the World Cross: ‘This is the excitement that lifts the sport’

When Sonia O’Sullivan thinks of the World Cross Country Championships, her first thoughts are not of her own considerable achievements at the event, but of the flickering television images she absorbed as a young girl.

“The World Cross Country is one of the first international events I remember watching on television,” she recalls, “and something I always wanted to be a part of.

“I remember seeing pictures of the Irish women’s team in their green singlets with the Irish shamrock. I dreamed that one day I could be part of that team.”

Another childhood image is of John Treacy ploughing through the mud of Limerick’s Greenpark Racecourse in 1979 to successfully defend the senior men’s title he had won in Glasgow the previous year.

Not just pictures of Treacy, but also of the swarming hordes of Irish spectators following him around the course. At times as he sprinted to victory over the last lap, Treacy was almost swallowed up by this rolling wave of euphoric fans. To this day, there is a vocal contingent of Irish fans who follow the World Cross Country around the world.

O’Sullivan has given them plenty to cheer about, not least with her double victory in the long course and short course races in Marrakech in 1998. It was the first time two distances had been contested at the World Cross, an experiment which lasted eight more years before being abandoned after the Fukuoka 2006 edition.

“My greatest memories of the World Cross Country include those great supporters who travel the world dressed head to toe in green and racing around the course waving Irish flags all believing they are pushing the athletes on to great things,” says O’Sullivan, whose spikes from the 1998 World Cross are displayed in the Museum of World Athletics.

And who’s to say that when great things like a ground-breaking double do happen, that such support does not play a part?

Home support was also a factor in O’Sullivan’s final competitive foray in the championships when she returned after the birth of her older daughter to lead Ireland to a team bronze medal in the short-course race in Dublin in 2002.

O’Sullivan’s first World Cross Country appearance was delayed five years. Ireland’s senior champion in 1987, she could have been selected for that year’s World Cross in Warsaw, but there was no U20 race then for women and a reluctance to see a 17-year-old “thrown to the wolves” prompted her to miss. That, along with her university commitments, meant her first experience came in Boston in 1992.

Fittingly, Boston has a distinct Irish flavour. It is the US city with the heaviest concentration of citizens of Irish descent. O’Sullivan had just completed her college degree at Villanova University, whose many Irish scholarship holders over the years included 1956 Olympic 1500m champion Ronnie Delany.

O’Sullivan’s parents travelled over to watch her race. Add in those travelling Irish supporters and it could almost have been a home event; certainly the next best thing. O’Sullivan travelled up to Boston by train and says her seventh place there proved to her that “the dream was alive, and I belonged on the world stage.”

As well as her contribution to Irish athletics, O’Sullivan has played a significant role in numerous Australian cross-country teams, as team coach, mentor and in management roles.

Australia has recognised the importance of cross country in the development of its distance runners, says O’Sullivan, and she is confident that contribution on the world scene will pay off in Bathurst.

“Some countries have a greater history of cross-country running and appreciate the benefits more than others. Australia knows what is required to attract the best athletes to compete and get as many spectators to come and be part of a great weekend of World Cross Country.”

O’Sullivan is full of praise for the initiatives adopted by the Bathurst local organising committee to involve the community with a programme of events for schools, club and community runners over three days.

She will be supporting in a tangible manner, too, joining three teammates from her Glenhuntly club in the relay on the morning of the main events. O’Sullivan will be running with Anna Munro who, as Anna Thompson, ran the World Cross nine times from 2002 to 2011 and was a member of Australia’s bronze medal-winning teams in 2006 and 2008. Olympic marathon runner Kate Smyth is also on the team, along with clubmate Fiona Noble.

“I’m looking forward to it,” O’Sullivan says.

Even if O’Sullivan were not racing, she would be running around.

“The World Cross Country is not an event where you sit in the stands,” O’Sullivan says. “You get the chance to run around, find the best vantage points. There’s movement on and off the course creating so much energy and buzz. Athletes can be lifted to do great things and hopefully deliver a medal for the host country.

“This is the excitement that lifts the sport. The more people we can get on site, on and off the course, the greater and more memorable the event will be for everyone.”

O’Sullivan says young fans will be excited and inspired by the chance to get up close to the world’s best runners.

“We need for kids to relate to the athletes. They will see the great Kenyan, Ethiopian and Ugandan runners live and be able to get up close to them.”

And to cheer on their local heroes – such as Stewart McSweyn, Oliver Hoare, Jess Hull and Abbey Caldwell on the relay, plus Jack Rayner and Rose Davies in the senior races. O’Sullivan believes the Australians can do well. There is extra pressure at home, but it is a positive pressure.

“You feel the excitement of the fans. You feel an obligation to deliver. (As athletes prepare) it’s in the back of your mind all the time.

“Like an Olympic year, you up your levels a bit more.”

O’Sullivan is confident fans will love the event, and the chance to see champion distance runners, as much as she does.

“I think people will embrace it. It gives them a reason to do something, to be active, to be a part of it.”

Len Johnson for World Athletics