At a ceremony at the UCC Mardkye Sports Complex in Cork City this afternoon, Sonia O'Sullivan re-opened the refurbished track which has been renamed in her honour.
As one of Irelands most successful athletes, Sonia spoke of her fond memories of competing on the track and how when she was younger, she used to have to get the train up from Cobh to train there. As we all know, those many years of training resulted in some outstanding performances which included a silver medal in the 5000m at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, a Gold medal in the 1995 World Championships, a Silver medal in the 1500m at the 1993 World Championships as well as three European Championship Gold medals and two World Cross-Country Championship Gold medals.
"It is a great honour. I can’t believe it, to be honest,” she said. "It is a tremendous privilege to have the track in my name and I want to thank everyone at UCC for this great honour.”
In his speech, UCC President Dr Michael Murphy said “Sonia is an inspiration to athletes everywhere and particularly for those who will train and compete on this track in the future. We are delighted to celebrate the achievements of one of the world’s greatest athletes, by naming our world class athletics track after Sonia.
Photos of this event were taken on behalf of the Running in Cork blog by Joe Murphy. You can see a slideshow of photos
HERE
Good on you Sonia.
ReplyDeleteI remember when you wewe told to leave the track because you weren't a member,when you were trying to get a training afterenoon in between athletic events.