O'Sullivan wins Zatopek title

O'Sullivan celebrates with Miller (l) and Michelsson

Kenya's Luke Kipkosgei and Irish Olympic 5,000m silver medallist Sonia O'Sullivan won the feature races at the Zatopek Classic meeting in Melbourne.

The crowd of several hundred observed a minute's silence to honour Czech athletics legend Emil Zatopek, who died aged 78 last month.

He is the only long-distance runner to have won three gold medals at a single Games, capturing the 5,000m, 10,000m and marathon titles at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics.

In the 40th staging of the Zatopek Classic at Melbourne's Olympic Park, Kipkosgei won his fourth 10,000m title, the third athlete and the only non-Australian to do so.

Ron Clarke, who held 19 world records, has won the most with five victories in the 1960s. Zatopek famously gave one of his four Olympic gold medals to Clarke.

Challenge

Kipkosgei, who missed the Sydney Olympics in September because of illness and flight delays, said he could challenge Ethiopian Haile Gebrselassie's world record of 26min 22.75sec set in 1998.

Confident: Kipkosgei

He won in 27.57.11 ahead of compatriot and last year's winner Abraham Chebii, who clocked 28.23.95, and Australian Sisay Bezabeh who ran 28.40.09.

"I think I can run 26.20 or something like that. I have confidence in myself," said Kipkosgei.

O'Sullivan did not break clear of 1988 runner-up Liz Miller, 37, until the final three laps of the women's 10,000m. Susan Michelsson was third.

The Irish athlete said she had wanted to post a fast time but added: "It was so hot I didn't want to kill myself out there."

O'Sullivan's winning time of 33.17.58 was well outside her Australian all-comers' record of 31.43.07. The 1995 world champion is gunning for another world title next year in the 5,000m.