She says that distance could be within her capability but you could say that about several others

She says that distance could be within her capability “but you could say that about several others”. A throw of 64.06 metres at Crystal Palace still left her outside the top 10 of the year, but the gap is closing.Backley, still behind with his training after Achilles tendon problems, may well have to find at least another five metres if he is to beat Jan Zelezny in the Olympic final. Sanderson, now aged 40, has progressed so well that a medal is within reach but she is annoyed that so few competitions have been available in the Olympic run-up “I keep hitting and missing,” she said. “I really needed more events, but I think I’ve done enough to send out some shock waves. Indeed O’Sullivan confessed that she had used up most of her energy in a lively morning training session in perfect weather.

By the evening there was a breeze and the mood was not with her.Only the javelin competitors Steve Backley and Tessa Sanderson really needed to test themselves one more time. “I’ve not really thought much about the tactics of other people I don’t even know what the Chinese have been doing. All I know is that I have to cover every move,” which is exactly what she did at Crystal Palace when Paula Radcliffe gave her some solid competition until the final lap when O’Sullivan strode away.No one with serious Olympic expectations was going to attempt a flat out performance as close to the Games as Friday – least of all Linford Christie, who had just recovered from some hamstring irritation, and Jonathan Edwards, who had only one semi-serious leap of over 17 metres. “I’m happy that the 5,000m is first and the 1,500m later,” she said.
She is favourite for the 5,000m and if she goes into the shorter race with the gold medal, she can relax and not suffer as much tension as others who are concentrating on the one event Her attitude to the 5,000 is that it could be a slow race. “There’s plenty of recovery time between them – the finals are seven days apart – and in any case everybody has to run in the same conditions.” Not everybody is going to run heats and finals of two particularly enervating events, though.

She goes to the United States this week not concerned that almost everyone she has heard giving her unprovoked advice has said that taking on the 1,500m and 5,000m in the heat, physical and mental, of the Olympic Games in sweltering Atlanta is too much “I’ve always planned to do the two races,” she said. She smiled knowingly and said expectation was a fine thing – performing to demand was another. What she did suggest was that her own Olympic expectations were even higher than those of the couch potato who asked the question. When somebody inevitably and almost accusingly demanded to know why she had not broken the 5,000 metres world record “as advertised” at Crystal Palace on Friday night, the stately, composed Irish runner Sonia O’Sullivan was not bitter. He was caught by the chasing pack 500 metres from the finish at Gap, and on Friday his compatriot Jesper Skibby dallied in the finishing sprint and lost out to the Swiss rider Pascal Richard.Sorensen fought off Orlando Rodrigues, the Portuguese teammate of Indurain, and said afterwards: “I was afraid of him in the sprint.

He kept saying that he was tired, and I had to do most of the work Fortunately I was the stronger.”. His reward for the effort was a trimming of 23sec from his Tour time. He is still 3min 16sec off the pace, but has widened the gap between himself and Indurain, who remains 4min 38sec behind Riis and has to be thankful that brotherly sacrifice saved his day.Riis and his Deutsche Telekom team’s pursuit of Leblanc and Virenque kept Indurain in touch. It was a nervous day for the man who is seeking a record sixth Tour triumph but, just to show he is not to be trifled with, he outsprinted Boardman for sixth place in the stage.Sorensen’s victory made up for two missed opportunities in other stages. The Uzbekistani sprinter could only watch as the tide swept past, leaving him to roll in alone once more, 2min 23sec after Sorensen.Leblanc fired attack after attack and Virenque, with a yellow jersey to gain, countered each challenge to claim third.

Indurain and his men had been stepping up the pace to shake out the weaker elements of the main field when the Spanish champion had a puncture. A team car could not get through the narrow roads quickly to the stranded hero to hand over a spare wheel, so Indurain’s brother Prudencio, of similar loftiness, gave Miguel his bike, and the battle resumed.At the front of the race, Djamolidine Abdoujaparov was alone hunting for points at the intermediate sprint then, having gained them, rode like a man looking for company, unaware of the gathering storm at his back. “I am not having a great Tour, but I was able to race with the others,” Boardman said after finishing seventh, some 23sec behind Soren- sen.Sorensen was an original member of Boardman’s group, but the battle for the yellow jersey wiped out a few ambitions as the French pairing of Luc Leblanc and Richard Virenque took on Riis, Rominger, Berzin, and Miguel Indurain.It was not a one-sided fight as it might have looked on paper. “It takes some time to clear, but the good news is that I now know what the trouble was,” he said. “I am feeling more stable, especially after the day I was in trouble on the first climb of the stage.”Yesterday he was in a breakaway group of 14 that eventually splintered under the weight of individual attacks. Tests have shown an intestinal infection had reduced his absorption of carbohydrates, which accounts for his loss of form earlier in the Tour.