EAT your heart out Mick McCarthy. As the Irish soccer manager continues his trawl for players with the proper parental credentials and talent to declare for Ireland, athletics has an abundance of talent.

With Katy McCandless the latest in a long line to throw her lot in with this country Irish athletics is in a healthy position.

Indeed at the IAAF Council meeting in Cape Town last March the 25 year old's change of nationality was officially rubber stamped.

McCandless' right to represent this country will mean that there is now an abundance of talent at 5,000 metres with, to date five athletes qualified to compete at this distance in Atlanta. Sonia O'Sullivan, Sinead Delahunty Catherina McKiernan, who has stated that 10,000 metres is her distance for the games, Marie McMahon and McCandless.

With the national champion guaranteed selection the national event at that distance could well be a humdinger of a race.

McCandless, who herself was born not far from California's Silicone Valley, is qualified to compete for this country on her father's side with her grandparents from Culdaff in Co Donegal and Eglinton, Co Derry and has been actively competing since she was 12.

After graduation from Princeton with a degree in history and the history of art in 1992 she travelled to England to pursue an art course and then decided to remain there purely to further her athletic career. The success of that can be gauged from the fact that she represented the US in 1993 in the Stuttgart World Championships over 3,000 metres but failed to advance beyond the heats.

But her decision to represent the country of her forebearers meant that she did not compete internationally for the last year. That was a fortunate decision as her season was curtailed by the Epstein Barr virus, the same virus that afflicted triple jumper Jonathon Edwards. But she did manage to race a few times with her time in Moscow of 15 minutes 34.1 seconds qualifying for Atlanta.

This year her training has again been restricted by an achilles tendon problem with the first three months of the year lost to injury. But under the watchful eve of Alan Storey who has guided her training for the last two years she is now back to full training covering up to 80 miles a week with her competitive comeback now just beginning.

She did compete in this country on one occasion - in Cork City Sports in 1994 - and this year's national test will be her second outing.

While 5000 metres is her distance at the moment. The longer distances would appear to be the next logical step for an athlete who prefers the road. The marathon will be the focus for the London based McCandless, who is full time athlete but who do some part time work for the National Art Collection Fund.

Proud of her Donegal affiliations she will wear the colours of Finn Valley in competition but will not be eligible to score for them in team events in this country as she was not born or resident in this country. She will no doubt, however, be a considerable asset to the sport on the international front.

A decision on whether Ireland will have any representatives in the marathon in the Olympics will be made at BLE's management committee meeting next Friday. To date no Irish athlete has achieved the `A' standard but six athletes four men and two women, have achieved the `B' mark.