Sophie O’Sullivan has been announced for the women’s 800m at ATHLOS London on Friday the 18th of September, giving Ireland two representatives at one of the most eye catching meetings on the athletics calendar.
O’Sullivan joins Rhasidat Adeleke, who had already been confirmed for the women’s 200m at StoneX Stadium in north London.
ATHLOS is an elite track and field event built entirely around women’s competition. Founded by Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian in 2024, it combines top level athletics with dramatic athlete introductions, music and a more glamorous presentation than the traditional one day meeting.
London will become the first city outside the United States to host ATHLOS following two editions in New York. Seven events will take place, with six athletes competing in each discipline. Every winner will receive 65,000 US dollars and a Tiffany & Co crown.
The standard on the track will be every bit as serious as the production around it. Olympic champion Keely Hodgkinson is due to defend her ATHLOS 800m title, giving O’Sullivan an opportunity to test herself against some of the leading two lap runners in the world.
Her invitation follows a remarkable run of progress over 800m.
The Ballymore Cobh athlete broke two minutes for the first time when winning at St Mary’s University in Twickenham on 9 August, clocking 1:59.65. She then produced a major personal best of 1:58.60 in Brescia, moving to second on the Irish all time list and finishing just 0.09 seconds outside Ciara Mageean’s national record.
Three days later, O’Sullivan ran 1:59.23 in Trier to complete three consecutive 800m races below two minutes.
It has added another dimension to an already strong season. O’Sullivan won her first Irish senior 1500m title in July before reaching the European final in Birmingham, where she finished eighth.
Long regarded primarily as a 1500m runner, her recent results suggest the shorter distance has become far more than a means of building speed. Another fast field in London could give her a genuine opportunity to threaten Mageean’s Irish record.
Adeleke will arrive in London after competing over 200m at the World Athletics Ultimate Championship in Budapest this weekend.
The Dubliner missed the early part of the summer after suffering a hamstring injury, but returned to win the Irish 200m title before claiming European silver in Birmingham with a national record of 22.28 seconds. She subsequently clocked 22.85 in Brescia in her first appearance since the championships.
Having O’Sullivan and Adeleke on the same ATHLOS card gives Irish supporters another major meeting to follow before the season draws to a close.
For O’Sullivan in particular, the invitation feels timely. Few athletes in Europe have made greater progress over 800m during the closing weeks of the season, and she will now get the stage and the opposition to find out just how far that progress can take her.
