SEATTLE – Back in May, Sophie O’Sullivan stunned with a four-second PR of 4:08.06 to shatter the Washington 1,500-meters School Record. Three months later, running at her first World Championships for Ireland, O’Sullivan ran an astonishing six seconds faster than her first record-breaking time, going 4:02.15 in the preliminary heats today in Budapest. It would still not be quite enough to advance the Husky junior into the semis, but it moved O’Sullivan to No. 3 in NCAA history on the all-dates list, No. 5 in Irish history, and it was under the Olympic Standard needed for the 2024 Olympic Games.
Four Huskies past and present raced in the 1,500-meters today on the first day of the World Championships. On the men’s side, NCAA and USA runner-up Joe Waskom made his senior U.S. National Team debut but got caught on the rail in a slow heat and was unable to move on. Kieran Lumb, the Canadian National Champion in his Worlds debut, also just missed the semis, but former All-American Sam Tanner, in his second Worlds for New Zealand, did get an auto-advancing spot today.
O’Sullivan placed eighth in her heat with the top-six getting spots in the semis. Her eighth-place time was faster than the winning time of the other three sections, as she debuted on the World Championships stage where her mother, Sonia, had gold medal success in the 5,000-meters for Ireland.
??? “That’s as fast as I could’ve run, it’s the best shot I could’ve given myself.”
Sophie O’Sullivan speaks after clocking a HUGE personal best in the heats of the Women’s 1500m at the World Championships.
Unfortunately not good enough to advance to the semi-finals but moves… pic.twitter.com/Ci0C8gZ2kU
— Athletics Ireland (@irishathletics) August 19, 2023
“I think that’s all I could do,” said O’Sullivan. “I put myself in a spot in the last 100 where I could have been in the top six and it just wasn’t in my favour today, but that’s as fast as I could have run. It’s the best shot I could have given myself. I’ll just have to come back another time.”
The only collegiates to run faster than O’Sullivan’s 4:02.15 at any point in the calendar year are former Colorado runner and World Championship gold medalist Jenny Simpson, and former Oregon runner and current Australian World Championship competitor Jessica Hull.
Waskom’s heat, the second of four, was the only one to turn tactical, and that made for a free-for-all down the home stretch. The difference between first-place in 3:46.77…
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