O'Sullivan makes qualifying time

O'Sullivan had to settle for second behind Eloise Wellings on Saturday

Sonia O'Sullivan achieved the 5,000m qualifying time at the Australia Commonwealth Games trials with second place on Saturday.

The Irish athlete, 36, has been cleared to represent hosts Australia at the Games next month after claiming dual nationality nine days ago.

But she shaded the qualifying mark of 15 minutes 45 seconds by 0.74 seconds as she was beaten by Eloise Wellings.

"It was the best I could do as I've had a lack of track training," she said.

"I just scraped in and hopefully that will be enough to gain selection."

Wellings won comfortably in Sydney in a time of 15:28.72.

O'Sullivan, who set a personal best of 14:41.02 when winning an Olympic silver medal in 2000, was delighted to achieve the qualifying time but admitted there was ample room for improvement.

"The weather wasn't too hot, although it was a little windy out there," she said, "but really what I need to do now is get in plenty of track work.

"I'm not too bothered with the time as I have been in this situation before. Now I just have to concentrate on my preparations on the track and it will come together."

Despite her Commonwealth hopes, she can still compete for Ireland in this year's European Championships and has said she would never run for Australia at any meeting involving her home country.