Sonia O’Sullivan donates double cross country winning shoes to the IAAF

Sonia O’Sullivan of Ireland who won the IAAF World Cross Country Championships short and long race double in 1998, when the former event was introduced at the Marrakech edition of the Championships, has donated her competition shoes (“complete with Marrakech mud”) to the IAAF humanitarian project Athletics for a Better World.

O’Sullivan, had a fantastic weekend in the Moroccan resort where, first she defeated her arch rival Great Britain’s Paula Radcliffe to take the long course gold, and then she out-sprinted the home crowd favourite Zahra Ouaziz to win the short course race.

A mother of two, O’Sullivan, 36, won her first major international medal when she claimed the 1500m silver at the 1993 World Championships in Stuttgart. She also finished fourth at 3000m in the German city.

Two years later she won her first major title when she took a superb win in the 5000m at the Gothenburg IAAF World Championships.

At the 1998 European Championships she won the 5000m and 10,000m double, and when defending her crowns four years later at the Munich European Championships she came home with two silver medals. 

At the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, O’Sullivan entered both the 5000m and the 10,000m taking silver in the shorter distance and finishing 6th at the 25-lap race. 

O’Sullivan’s donation will be auctioned at the end of the year and all profits donated to the United Nations Associations: FAO, UNICEF and WFP.