Sophie O'Sullivan sprints to victory at NCAA Championships

Irish Examiner

9 hours ago

With a devastating last lap of 58.43 seconds, Sophie O'Sullivan has etched her name on the exclusive list of Irish athletes to have won an NCAA title – the 23-year-old clocking 4:07.94 to win the women's 1500m at the NCAA Division 1 Outdoor Championships in Eugene, Oregon on Saturday night.
O'Sullivan, a final-year student at the University of Washington, is just the fifth Irish woman to have won gold at the event, following in the footsteps of her mother Sonia along with Rhasidat Adeleke, Valerie McGovern and Mary Cullen.
O'Sullivan was born and raised in Australia but, as a dual citizen, she chose to represent Ireland in her mid-teens, winning 800m silver in her international debut at the European U-18 Championships in 2018.
In 2023, she outsprinted her Irish teammate Sarah Healy to win the European U-23 1500m title and went on to become an Olympian in Paris last year. However, despite her achievements elsewhere, O'Sullivan had repeatedly come up short in her search for an NCAA title, finishing 12th in the 1500m final at the last two editions.
She said she was 'pretty f**king happy' to hit the line in front in her final race as a collegiate athlete and had been 'running a bit scared' over the last lap, unaware of how much daylight she had put between her and her rivals. She came home well clear of Margot Appleton of the University of Virginia (4:08.99).
O'Sullivan revealed she had endured some cyber bullying after one of her earlier disappointments at the event, but having struggled with injuries at times in recent years, she came into these championships fit and fully firing.
'I felt this year I was a different person, a different athlete,' she said. 'And based on the races I've had recently, I had no reason to think I should run bad.'
The early pace in the final was slow, the field passing 400m in 68 seconds and 800m in just 2:21. O'Sullivan slotted into second on the opening lap but took control with two laps to run. 'I was just trying to hold my position on the inside lane and not let everyone box me out and trying to find a way out,' she told Letsrun.com.
She shifted through the gears, stretching the field, on the penultimate lap, and then went for broke with half a lap to run, powering clear of the field on the final bend. She said it was 'special' to finish her NCAA career with a win. Her mother Sonia had won five NCAA titles during her years at Villanova University in the early 1990s.
Asked about her plans and where she plans to base herself, Sophie said she was 'not too sure' but would look at the options on the table in the weeks ahead for a professional contract. 'My visa's up so I've got to leave America soon, I'm going to fly to London and go from there. We'll see.' Over the summer she will be based primarily in Teddington, linking up with members of the Melbourne Track Club, a professional group which is run by her father, Nic Bideau.
She is already qualified for the Tokyo World Championships in September, having run 4:00.23 at the Olympics in Paris last year.
Elsewhere at the NCAA Championships, Cork sprinter Lucy-May Sleeman was part of the Florida State team that finished seventh in the women's 4x100m, clocking 43.30. The women's 800m was won by Róisín Willis in 1:58.13, the daughter of Irish Olympian Breda Dennehy-Willis. A student at Stanford University, Willis is also eligible to represent Ireland though in her teenage years she chose to represent the US, where she was born and raised, winning the world U20 title in 2022.
Meanwhile, Rhasidat Adeleke will be back in action this evening at the Stockholm Diamond League. The 22-year-old Dubliner finished fourth in Oslo on Thursday night in her first 400m race since last September, clocking 50.42, and she will hope to improve on that against a similar line-up in Stockholm. The race goes to the line at 6pm Irish time, with live coverage on Virgin Media Two and BBC Two from 5pm.
On Saturday, rising star Nick Griggs made an excellent return to racing at the British Milers Club event in Belfast after a long layoff, winning the mile in 3:55.97 in rainy conditions.