Sophie O’Sullivan superseded her mother Sonia on the Irish all-time 800m record, cutting more than one second from her personal best with a time of 2:00.28 during the Lignano event in Italy. Remarkably, this performance occurred less than two days after achieving a seasonal best of 4:05.77 in the 1,500m category at the Santry’s Morton Games.
The Lignano race was of an exceptionally high standard, with the victory going to Eloisa Coiro from Italy, who set her personal best with a time of 1:59.26. This put her ahead of Australia’s Lindan Hall, who finished at 1:59.72. O’Sullivan, who ranked fifth, had previously set her best at 2:01.43 in Germany the prior September. Her latest time outperforms her mother’s 2:00.69 set in 1994, a record held by Sonia for 19 years in Ireland.
This result places Sophie O’Sullivan at the fourth spot on the all-time Irish list, trailing behind Ciara Mageean’s Irish record of 1:58.51 which was established in May. This is yet another notable achievement for the 22-year-old athlete who had earlier claimed her maiden Irish senior 1,500m title, 24 years subsequent to her mother’s last victory.
This promising run sets the stage for O’Sullivan as she begins her journey to the Paris Olympics, joining Mageean and Sarah Healy in the 1,500m category, after improving her personal best to 4:02.15 the previous summer.