Sonia O'Sullivan broke the European 3000m record 20 years ago today

Date : 15th July 1994. Sonia O'Sullivan of Ireland and Yvonne Murray of Britain went head to head in a 3000m race at Crystal Palace in London. On that evening 20 years ago today, Sonia went on to win the race and set a new European record of 8:21.64.

Even though the record was later just broken by Gabriela Szabo in 2002 (8:21.42), it is still the Irish national record. These are the 5 fastest Irish women over 3000m....

1 8:21.64    NR Sonia O'Sullivan 28 Nov 69 1 GP London 15 Jul 1994
2 8:43.74i NR Mary Cullen 17 Aug 82 1 Valentine Boston MA 13 Feb 2009
3 8:49.51    Monica Joyce 16 Jul 58 1 San Diego CA 25 May 1984
4 8:50.40    Maria McCambridge 10 Jul 75 3 Madrid 16 Jul 2005
5 8:51.33    Catriona McKiernan 30 Nov 69 Nice 15 Jul 1992

As you can see, no other Irish woman has come within 20 seconds of her time. Only 19 Irish women have ever broken the 9 minute barrier.

This poor quality video shows Sonia O'Sullivan setting the record back on the 15th of July 1994.

Looking back...Cork womens mini-marathon in 1986

The Evening Echo Womens mini-marathon is 30 years old this year. This post looks back 25 years ago to the year 1986 when the mini-marathon was just 5 years old. At that time, it was run over a 10k course and was won by Yvonne Murray from Scotland, one of the leading European middle distance runners in the 80's and 90's.
She had just won the bronze in the 3000 metres in the European Championships in August in Stuttgart in what was then West Germany. Just one month later, she took part in the Cork Evening Echo Womens mini-marathon.
She would later go on to take bronze in the 3000m at the 1988 Olympics and win gold at 3000m at the 1990 European Championships and the 1993 World Indoor Championships.
A short race report with the times of the first 40 runners can be seen HERE
How many of those 40 names took part in the 2011 race?.............more info in the comments below.