SONIA O'SULLIVAN "returns to familiar territory this evening, convinced that her preparations for the Olympic 1,500 and 5,000 metres double in Atlanta next month are still precisely on schedule.

O'Sullivan goes to the line in the 3,000 metres race in the Cork City Sports at the Mardyke in the reassuring knowledge of having won all her five races this season.

Not all of them were achieved with the fluency of a world champion, however, and contenders for the 5,000 metres championship will have noted that she was made to work uncommonly hard in the closing stages of her only run over the distance at Rome earlier in the month.

That, she maintains, was attributable to the fact that she was carrying a lot of training in her legs and she hopes to make the point as the season unfolds over the next three weeks.

"There is still a lot of running to be done between now and Atlanta, still a lot of time to sort out any problems which may arise," she says.

"I haven't yet done any serious speed work, but when I do I am confident that I will be able to build on a heavy winter's training.

"At this point, nobody is too keen to show their hand. It's merely a question of keeping the rhythm going and devising a programme which will peak towards the end of July."

Not until she has run the 1,500 metres at Paris next Friday and the mile at Oslo the following week are we likely to get an accurate assessment of her current form, but local enthusiasts will be hopeful that she can reproduce enough of her old verve to quicken the pulse in the picturesque Mardyke arena.

On the face of it, her task would seem relatively simple with only the Ukranian, Svetlana Miroshnik, who is primarily a 1,500 metres runner, presenting an overseas threat.

The bigger danger, one suspects, may come from her colleagues in the Olympic squad, Marie McMahon and Cathy McCandless, an Australian of Irish ancestry who has been living and training in London recently.

McMahon has taken a year off from her studies at Providence College to mount a credible challenge for the Olympic 5,000 metres championship, and judged on her performance when running Catherina McKiernan close in the National Championships at Santry last week, she is profiting from the experience.

Realistically, however, it is difficult to give either of them a chance against O'Sullivan when the tempo is raised over the last 400 metres and they are required to match the champion's proven qualities in the drive for the line.

Regrettably, a stress fracture has put another of Cork's favourite athletes, Mark Carroll, out of the Olympics and demanded this evening's men's 5,000 metres race of what would have been its central personality.

However, the programme is sufficiently well balanced to ensure some excellent entertainment, notably in the men's 800 metres race, in which Dave Matthews will be seeking to hone his Atlanta preparations.

After spending the winter in Australia, Matthews has occasionally looked sluggish in recent weeks, and he must find substantial improvement here if he is to hold off the two Kenyans, Robert Kibet and Sammy Langat.

Marcus O'Sullivan, close to the end of a splendid career, will be opposed by fellow Corkman, Ken Mason in the 1,500 metres and there is every prospect of another fine race in the women's 200 metres, in which Cathy Freeman of Australia, the Commonwealth Games champion, will be the one to beat for Waterford's Susan Smith.