30/10/02: Sonia O'Sullivan is strongly tipped to set another unique Irish distance running milestone in Sunday's New York City Marathon.

Victory remains the ultimate aim around the five boroughs of the Big Apple. But running faster than two hours, 22 minutes and 23 seconds would see the already highly acclaimed O'Sullivan hold every Irish record from 800 metres to the stamina-sapping 26 miles, 382 yards distance.

"Of course I'd be happy to beat records such as the Irish record or the course record, but I don't really focus on them," said O'Sullivan, who today will make the 120-mile trip from her training base outside of Philadelphia to the race venue.

"The priority is to compete well and try to win the race," added O'Sullivan, who has been based at her former college of Villanova for the last week.

"A winning time is always a good time. Records only enter your mind when the contest is over."

But recent form - since opting for New York in late summer, O'Sullivan has set a world 10-mile record and won the BUPA Great North Run in an Irish half-marathon best time of 67:19 - suggests she can better the performance Catherine McKiernan achieved four years ago in Amsterdam.

O'Sullivan also knows she will be driven along by a very fast pace - unlike two years ago when, in her first and only marathon after deciding to compete only the night before the race, she turned out and strolled to an easy success in Dublin.

Clinching a "Grand Slam" of Irish records is also another ambition of O'Sullivan and the achievement would sit equally alongside the Olympic 5,000m silver and numerous World Championship gold medals already in her possession.

After her wonderful victory last month on Tyneside, where she shot to the top of the world half marathon rankings and left the Irish marathon record as the only honour not in her hands, O'Sullivan admitted: "It will be nice to get the lot."

-PA-