After her roadside view of Monday’s high-altitude stage of the Tour de France in the Pyrenees, Sophie O’Sullivan is back at sea level ahead of the Cork City Sports on Wednesday evening for what might prove an important marker for Irish women’s 800 metres running.O’Sullivan had been training at the popular Font Romeu altitude camp for the last three weeks. Situated 1,850m above sea level – or a bit over a mile high – it was one of the last high mountain passes during Monday’s Tour stage into nearby Les Angles.With the European Championships in Birmingham now just over a month away, O’Sullivan intends on putting that period of training to good use during her final build-up of races, starting with Cork, before moving on to the Morton Games in Santry on Friday evening – both meetings part of the World Athletics Continental Tour.The women’s 800m is one of the headline races in Cork, with O’Sullivan joined by Emma Moore, Laura Nicholson and also Hannah Segrave, who is now representing Ireland after her transfer of allegiance from Britain was completed at the end of last year. Only two Irish women have broken the two-minute barrier for 800m – Ciara Mageean with her national record of 1:58.51 set in 2024, and Louise Shanahan with her 1:59.42 from 2022.The automatic qualifying standard for Birmingham is 1:59.80, the target time for Moore and O’Sullivan in what should be ideal running conditions. And Segrave may help get them there: she won the Irish Indoor title back in March and has a lifetime best of 1:59.30 from when representing Britain, but which doesn’t count for Irish ranking purposes.The 22-year-old Moore improved her best to 2:00.71 last month, and O’Sullivan (24) has a best of 2:00.28 from 2024. O’Sullivan has endured some injury setbacks earlier in the season, but already has the 1,500m qualifying time for Birmingham, thanks to the 4:02.12 she ran to make the semi-final at the World Championships in Tokyo last September.Set for the Munster Technological University (MTU) in Bishopstown, and now in its 72nd year, the Cork City Sports will also afford Nicola Tuthill the chance to test herself against the best women’s hammer thrower in the world. Olympic and World champion Camryn Rogers from Canada, with a best of 81.13 metres, leads the international field along with the 22-year-old Tuthill, who last month improved her lifetime best to 72.73m.There will also be a sprint showdown between two of Ireland’s fastest men. Sean Aigboboh is back from the US after breaking the Irish 200m record in his first year at the University of Houston, and is set to face off against Bori Akinola, who improved his 100m best to 10.19 seconds in May. The international events start at 6.30pm.