Sonia O'Sullivan is to wait for at least another fortnight before defining her plans for the world cross country championships at Marrakech on March 22nd. O'Sullivan, currently nearing the end of a course of altitude training in Northern Australia, is scheduled to run in a cross country race over six kilometres at Canberra on February 8th.
Only then will she determine her programme for the restyled championships in Morocco where for the first time, two world cross country titles will be up for competition for women, at four and eight kilometres respectively.
Because of a shortage of funds, BLE will enter a team at just one distance and in the expectation that Catherina McKiernan would run, they took a policy decision last month that it would be in the longer event.
Now, even after McKiernan's withdrawal to concentrate on her preparations for the London marathon, they show no signs of revising that decision to facilitate O'Sullivan, the only other realistic Irish hope for a medal in the championships.
Apart from two road runs in Australia, the Cork athlete has never raced beyond 5,000 metres and it is largely because of this that she has decided to await the evidence of the Canberra race before making her next move.
"After almost four weeks at altitude I feel good but, not until I run competitively in a fortnight's time, can I be certain how good," she said yesterday. "That should tell me how I'm running and where I should be at in the third week of March.
"It's true that the Canberra race is two kilometres shorter than the longer one in Morocco but it should still give me a fairly accurate picture of my form and my prospects of getting the extra distance.
"At this point, I see no reason why a dual entry cannot be made for the 4,000 and 8,000 metres races. This is standard practice for the world track championships and it gives athletes a chance of making a decision closer to the day."
BLE's Management Committee is not due to discuss the matter again for another two weeks but at that stage, the likelihood is that Una English, another member of the team which finished third in the World Championship in Turin last March, will have expressed her preference for the shorter distance.
Valerie Vaughan, a competent 5,000 metres track runner, would also be better suited by this event with either Sinead Delahunty or Marie McMahon capable of making up a quartet with genuine prospects of again finishing in the top three.
Going strictly on the results in last Saturday's international races in Belfast, there isn't a great deal of domestic talent to support this overseas contingent. After showing up well in the early stages, Maureen Harrington receded to 14th place in the women's race won, with a powerful late charge, by Romania's Marianna Chirila.
Theresa Duffy was more disappointing still, finishing almost two minutes down on the winner with a time of 17 minutes 59 seconds in 24th position.
By contrast, the men's race in which Kenya's Laban Chege finally broke the abrasive Frenchman, Yann Millon, on the last lap, was much more rewarding from an Irish viewpoint. Although Seamus Power eventually had to settle for seventh place, he was fully competitive for the bulk of the 8,000 metres journey.
Early on, Power looked certain to be the top Irish finisher but ultimately that honour went to Peter Matthews in fourth position. Matthews showed that his form in the European championship in Portugal was authentic when running on well over the last lap to overtake Power and England's Keith Cullen.
At one point, it seemed as if he might progress to third but he lost his impetus over the last 1,000 metres.
