THE pine covered valleys of Oregon on the US west coast will hold much Irish interest on Sunday morning with Sonia O'Sullivan due to have her first serious outing of the track and field season over 3000 metres.

Although she did have a cob web blowing race over 1500 metres last week this will be a real indication of her winter training progression.

But events nearer home in Cardiff, Lille and Ljubljana will hopefully also give indication of just how large and strong Ireland's eventual Olympic squad will be as athletes go in search of elusive qualifying times.

Eugene, Oregan, has long been a mecca for distance runners and there again on Sunday morning (US time) a galaxy of stars will gather for the annual Prefontaine Grand Prix meeting with the two O'Sullivans, Sonia and Marcus in action.

The 3000 metres field, while containing some classy performers, does not look as if it will trouble the Irish woman too much. Mary Slaney and Lynn Jennings are both scheduled to compete but their best performances appear to belong to other days. However, O'Sullivan will meet up with several from her old alma mater of Villanova in Vicky Huber and Cherie Goddard with Joan Nesbit and Kathy Franey likely to be the most troublesome for her. No doubt O'Sullivan will be anxious to put down a serious early season marker and give the Chinese something to mull over in the run up to Atlanta.

The mile will be focus for Marcus O'Sullivan where he will again be faced by Steve Holman and Terence Herrington with Kenya's David Kibet also in the field. While the years have obviously taken their inevitable toll he will go into the race in good heart following his fifth placing in Atlanta last week in a time of three minutes 56.95 seconds thereby continuing his pursuit of 100 clockings below the once magical four minute barrier.

O'Sullivan who stated some years ago that he would no longer compete in the major championships may if his good form continues decide to run as the Olympics are on his own backyard in the United States and would not be too much of an intrusion. He would only need to travel down a few days before competing.

While Marcus O'Sullivan ponders over his Olympic participation the priorities are rather different for Shane Healy. The season did not start too well for Healy when he failed to finish in his opening race of 5000 metres in the Mount Sac relays while his performance over the same distance on the road in Dublin at the beginning of the month did not inspire confidence that he would achieve the Olympic time.

But he performed much more creditably over 800 metres in Santry two weeks ago and the confidence gained from that is sure to send him to the starting line in good form.

The Dublin City Harrier has the `B' standard but to compete in Atlanta he will need to run the faster `A' standard of three minutes 38 seconds to travel as Niall Bruton is already pencilled in over 1500 metres. Healy had hoped to compete in Hengelo but found himself unable to secure a place on the starting line.

BLE came to his rescue and ensured his participation on the start line in Ljubljana instead where Des English will also compete in that event.

Also chasing times there will be Emma Nicholson who will hope to transfer her indoor form to outdoors. Gary Ryan showed tremendous improvement in the sprints this season and is another hoping to retain that vein.

Sharon Foley is a mere 1cm off the standard in the high jump from the indoor season and will welcome the opportunity to show that she can go higher.

Susan Smith is one of four hurdlers in action and the Waterford girl who returned to Ireland last week is anxious to improve still further on her recent Irish 400 metres hurdles record to copper fasten her participation in Atlanta, the city where she has lived for the last 18 months, a the end of July.

Despite the pressure of preparing for her Leaving Certificate Grainne Redmond is taking time out from studying to compete in the sprint hurdles in the hope of gaining the time for the World Junior Championships in Sydney.

TJ Kearns and Sean Cahill will renew their rivalry in the men's high hurdles.

Niall Bruton competes today in Lille over 1500 metres and is certain to be less lacklustre than on his last outing. The Clonliffe Harrier is at a loss to explain that disappointing performance given that he has put in some impressive training sessions in recent weeks and he is sure to have benefited from the outing.

Mark Carroll will also be in the lineup. Originally Carroll thought that he had not secured his place in the same event but the matter was eventually sorted out and the Corkman travelled to France yesterday.

Colin Jackson is perhaps a rather unusual meeting promoter given that he is in the throes of training for Atlanta but the world record holder over 110 metre hurdles has taken over the organisation of the Welsh Games also today in a serious effort to bring big time athletics back to his home town.

In Ireland will have a large squad action there. David Matthews was scheduled to compete in Ljubljana but received word late on Wednesday that the 800 metre event was cancelled and will now instead compete in Cardiff as a guest at that distance joining John Hayes and Derek O'Connor in the event.

Indeed it will be interesting to see how O'Connor fares and whether a more gentle opening will produce a time below one minute 50 for the Dubliner. Unfortunately the squad has been hit by defections but it will provide a welcome opportunity for several athletes to judge their rate of improvement against international competition.