The announcement that Sonia O'Sullivan is expecting a baby in June means it is unlikely that she will return to the grand prix circuit before next year.

Following her European double last summer O'Sullivan had been installed as one of the long-range favourites for the 5,000 and 10,000 metres titles in the World Championships at Seville in August. It is now unlikely that she will participate in athletics' premier event.

"It is highly unlikely that somebody giving birth in June would be able to run at that level just two months later," said Dr Moira O'Brien, professor of anatomy at Trinity College Dublin, yesterday.

"Even when there are no complications at birth, athletes are normally advised to wait at least six weeks before resuming training," she said.

In the longer term, giving birth need not necessarily impinge on O'Sullivan's athletics career. Many athletes have seen their careers improve dramatically after giving birth, with Russia's Svetlana Masterkova, one of O'Sullivan's great rivals at 1,500 metres, making the point powerfully.

Ingrid Kristiansen, the celebrated Norwegian long-distance runner, was another who claimed that breaks from athletics during her pregnancies were a significant factor in enabling her to extend her career.

That the Irish woman has frequently over-raced in the past is scarcely in question and to that extent her enforced rest could prove highly beneficial for her career.

Yet, she will be anxious to resume work at the earliest opportunity and is likely to be back in light training in the autumn, at the start of a long build-up to the Olympic Games in Sydney next year.

Whatever her programme, BLE will support it enthusiastically. "Sonia has been in contact on a regular basis to assure us that she remains fully focussed for the Sydney Games," said a spokesman.

"As a competitor, she has never been less than 100 per cent committed and as a representative of Irish athletics her record is second to none. We wish her well at this time and look forward to her early return to competition."

As a gesture of that support, BLE will invite O'Sullivan to be part of their official delegation at the world cross country championships in Belfast next month.

That will be interpreted as a valuable public relations exercise on the one hand and something of a consolation for the organisers of the championships as O'Sullivan will not be defending the titles she won in Morocco last March.