Places in the squad for next month's World Cross Country Championships in Belfast will be at stake in the National Championships, sponsored by McDonnells Cup-a-Soup, at Stranorlar tomorrow.

If the return of the world tests to Ireland for the first time in 20 years has had the effect of concentrating minds in the approach to the showpiece of the domestic season it finds some of the principal title contenders in trouble.

Seamus Power, invincible in domestic competition in recent years, is unlikely to defend the championship because of flu. And Peter Matthews, another former winner, is doubtful for the same reason.

It catches the mood of a frustrating season for the Dundrum-South Dublin athlete who, after an impressive start to his programme, had his plans disrupted by a persistent back injury. It means that, along with Power and Mark Carroll, he must rely on getting one of the optional places when the squad for Belfast is selected.

The effect will be to shorten the odds against Belfast athlete Dermot Donnelly claiming the title within months of his decision to pursue an international career with Ireland rather than Britain.

Donnelly, in fifth place, was the first Irish finisher in the CocaCola international race in Belfast last month and on that form may well be in line for the biggest win of his career en route to a coveted opportunity of running in the world championship on home terrain.

Martin McCarthy, the national 5,000 metres track champion who has taken to cross country competition with significant success this season, has an obvious chance and the Dublin challenge is expected to be led by Noel Cullen and Noel Berkeley, newly returned from altitude training.

In the team event, the presence of Cormac Finnerty, Tom McGrath and the Burke brothers, John and David, should give Mullingar most of the advantages.

Finn Valley's defence of the team title will ensure a pronounced local interest in the women's race in which Maureen Harrington will be seeking to join the elite group of athletes who have won the race on three occasions.

Three American-based athletes, Breda Dennehy, Rosemary Ryan and Marie McMahon, have returned in the hope of securing nominations for the World Championship, but the bigger threats to the champion, one suspects, will emanate from Valerie Vaughan and Una English, both of whom were in the Irish team which finished third in the world championship at Turin.