Marcus O'Sullivan

Marcus O'Sullivan

Personal information
Born	22 December 1961
Medal record Men’s Athletics Competitor for  Ireland World Indoor Championships Gold 1987 Indianapolis 1500 m Gold 1989 Budapest 1500 m Gold 1993 Toronto 1500 m

Marcus O'Sullivan (born 22 December 1961) is a retired Irish middle distance runner. Although he wasn't planning to go to any of Ireland's universities, O'Sullivan's running encouraged him to go to Villanova University at 19. After four years of education at Villanova, O'Sullivan graduated with a degree in accounting and later attained an MBA and a CPA.

Career

O'Sullivan quickly became a world class runner, and took part in four summer Olympic Games. He won three gold medals at the World Indoor Championships over 1500m. He is third all-time (trailing Steve Scott and John Walker) with total sub-4 minute miles, at 101.

The three World Indoor 1500 meter Championships won by O'Sullivan were in 1987 (Indianapolis), 1989 (Budapest), and 1993 (Toronto). In his victories in 1987 and 1989, he set championship records. He was 4th in the 1991 Seville world indoor championships.

O'Sullivan qualified for four Olympic Games for Ireland: 1984, 1988, 1992, and 1996, at both 800 meters and 1500 meters. He reached the 1500 meter finals at the 1988 Seoul Olympics.

He set an indoor 1500 meters world record of 3:35.4 on 10 February 1989, and was generally regarded as a better competitor running indoors. This is evidenced by the fact that O'Sullivan won the prestigious Wanamaker Mile in Madison Square Garden's Millrose Games five times (1986, 1988, 1989, 1990 and 1992).

His personal best for the mile, set indoors in 1987, is 3:50.96, and his PB for 1500 meters is 3:33.65, set in 1992.

O'Sullivan, along with Irish runners Ray Flynn, Eamonn Coghlan, and Frank O'Mara established the still standing world record in the 4 x mile relay, when they combined in Dublin on August 17, 1985 to run 15:49.08.

O'Sullivan now runs the RunningWorks cross country camp during the summer, and is the head coach of Villanova cross country and track and field. He was coached by Tom Donnelly of Haverford College and advised Bob Kennedy in the later years before Kennedy's retirement.

In addition to his ties to American record holder Bob Kennedy, O'Sullivan has coached elite professional runners such as Canadian indoor world silver medalist Carmen Douma-Hussar, and New Zealander Adrian Blincoe.

He has a daughter named Laura O'Sullivan, who attends Villanova University.

References

• IAAF profile for Marcus O'Sullivan

Persondata
Name	Osullivan, Marcus
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	22 December 1961
Place of birth
Date of death
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