By John Haughey BBC Sport Online

Sonia O'Sullivan's exploits once again dominated Irish athletics in 2002.

The Cobh woman delighted her home fans by inspiring the Irish women's team to a surprise bronze medal in the short course event at the World Cross Country Championships in Leopardstown during March.

O'Sullivan had given birth to her second daughter less than 12 weeks earlier and her individual seventh place in the race was an incredible performance.

Her joy after learning that the Irish women's had edged out the Russians for the bronze medal was there for all to see.

As regards the organisation of the Dublin event, there were a few murmurings of discontent from the British press.

O'Sullivan got her tactics wrong in the closing lap of the 5000m in Munich

Certainly, the fact that spectators were banished to the stands - instead of being allowed out on the course - was far from ideal.

But to be fair to the organisers, the matter was out of their hands and the issue had been well-documented before the event.

Overall, the Leopardstown event passed off reasonably smoothly and, officially at least, the noises coming from the IAAF bigwigs were positive.

O'Sullivan's summer campaign was aimed at the European Championships in Munich.

Her expected 10,000m showdown with British star Paula Radcliffe never materialised although O'Sullivan showed guts to hang on for silver 46 seconds behind the imperious Briton.

Paul McKee: Breakthrough season

A greater disappointment was the 5000m where the Irish athlete got her tactics wrong in the closing lap to lose out in a photo-finish to Spain's Marta Dominguez.

However, two silvers could hardly be regarded as a failure and O'Sullivan went on to show excellent form on the roads in September and October.

Everything pointed to O'Sullivan producing a big performance at the New York Marathon but surprisingly, she could only finish 12th and her brief career over the distance could already be over.

As regards Northern Ireland athletes, Paul McKee was the performer of the year.

The West Belfast 400m runner broke Derek O'Connor's 16-year-old Irish record in early June which made him the fastest European at that point of the year.

McKee narrowly missed out on a place in the final of both the Commonwealth Games and European Championships but 2002 was, nevertheless, a big breakthrough season for the athlete.

McIlroy's performances this year were still well-short of his debut season

Overall, the Commonwealth Games brought little cheer for Northern Ireland's track and field team.

James McIlroy was touted by some as a medal hope but the London-based 800m runner got his tactics wrong in the final and finished a distant sixth.

McIlroy hoped to atone at the European Championships but there was to be no repeat of his heroics in Budapest four years ago with McIlroy, on this occasion, bowing out in the semi-finals.

A couple of weeks later, McIlroy produced his fastest run for four years with a 1.45.52 clocking in Italy but the Larne man failed to perform on the big stage again at the World Cup in September.

McIlroy appears to have made some progress since he moved to Alan Storey's stable last year but his performances this year were still well-short of his debut season of 1998.

James McIlroy: Disappointing season

In comparison to '98, the McIlroy of this season was missing a couple of gears while there are also doubts about his ability to perform under pressure.

As regards the rest, pole vaulter Zoe Brown and marathon runner Teresa Duffy came away from the Commonwealth Games with great credit.

Brown set a British junior record of 4.00m to make the final in Manchester and finished seventh overall.

Duffy ran a gutsy race to take fifth in the marathon with a 2.40.27 clocking which was a fine performance in the circumstances.

Gareth Turnbull didn't even make it to Manchester after suffering another heartbreaking summer.

Turnbull had finished a solid 25th in the short course event at the World Cross Country but after making a decent start to his track season, sustained a stress fracture which wrecked his campaign.

Paul Brizzel, who along with John McAdorey had been controversially omitted from the Commonwealth Games, endured another disappointing campaign highlighted by a bizarre episode at the European Championships.

McIvor farce

The Ballymena sprinter had to duck out of the way of an overhanging camera moments after starting his 200m heat.

After a protest by the Irish team, Brizzel was allowed a solo re-run but he didn't run fast enough to make the next stage.

Adrienne McIvor's premature exit from the Commonwealth Games was also the stuff of farce.

The Australian native was selected for Manchester only for organisers to discover that she didn't satisfy the Games eligibility regulations.

Suffice to say, both the Northern Ireland Commonwealth Games Council and the Northern Ireland Athletics Federation both blamed each other for the fiasco.