THE road to Atlanta is likely to be sign posted by some compelling performances in Oslo tonight when the Bislett Games mark a significant watershed in the approach to the Olympic Games.

Tradition and the hard finances of modern sport, invest this meeting with an importance which translates into one of the most revealing of the pre Olympic presentations.

And on a night of glitterati, when Frankie Fredericks assails Michael Johnson's kingdom in the 200 metres, Sonia O'Sullivan's appearance in the women's 1,500 metres promises to be as captivating as any.

After a comparatively leisurely introduction to the season, the real racing starts here for the athlete who aspires to take her place among the immortals of Olympic competition with an unprecedented 1,500 and 5,000 metres double.

To stay on track, however, she needs to make some psychological points to a field which, in spite of the late withdrawal of reigning champion Hassiba Boulmerka, might do justice to the final itself.

Confirmed as a definite starter however, is Maria Mutola the undisputed number one at 809 metres who, like O'Sullivan, is aiming for double gold within the next month.

Only the Romanian Gabriella Szabo has run a faster 1,500 metres this summer and Mutola is now back to the form which enabled her to build an amazing sequence of 42 wins before her disqualification in the World Championships last year.

Here too is the British girl, Kelly Holmes, one of only two athletes - Mutola was the other to beat O'Sullivan in an otherwise flawless campaign in 1995.

On her own admission, it is a high risk race for O'Sullivan. This is an assignment which will demand all her proven qualities of speed and endurance to get her to the line first.

"At some point you've got to test the water, see what is what and I figure this is it," she said. "I need to run well here, not just for myself but for the benefit of the others in the race with me. Neither of the two 1,500 metre races I've run this year was particularly fast and nobody needs to remind me of that. But I've sharpened up with a lot of speed work over the last 10 days and I think I'm in good shape. Just how good, I'll discover in this race.

Only one Irish athlete figures in the current top 10 of 1,500 metres runners - and it's not O'Sullivan. Sinead Delahunty chopped almost four seconds off her previous best when running four minutes 4.65 seconds in Paris last Friday, and judged on that performance, she will he close to the firing line when O'Sullivan throws down her challenge over the last 300 metres.

Some 40 minutes after battle has been done in the women's 1,500 metres, Johnston and Fredericks will come on track for a 200 metres duel which, even by Bislett standards, promises to be quite special.

At a time when the standard of men's middle distance running is tending to sag, the sprinters have regained much of their old glory and the point was underlined with some astounding performances in Lausanne.

After Johnson had ambled through the first half of the race and still clocked 43.66 seconds for the 400 metres, the Namibian reached to within a 100th of a second of Leroy Burrell's world record of 9.8 seconds in the 100 metres to set the scene for the race of the year, so far.

It is the biggest challenge yet for Johnson since he re wrote one of the great records and eclipsed Pietro Mennea's superb figures in the 200 metres during the can Olympic trials. But he ready.

"It's going to be a tough one, but while I was among the first to shake Frankie's hand in Switzerland, a 9.86 second 100 metres doesn't convert into 19.72 seconds for the 200 metres," he said.

No less enthralling will be the first meeting of the season over 100 metres of those arch rivals, Gwen Torrence and Ottey.

Marcus O'Sullivan and Niall Bruton, both hoping for big runs' will surely be in the slip stream of Noureddine Morceli when he puts his foot on the pedal in the Dream Mile, and Nick Sweeney's Olympic aspirations may likewise be put in perspective in a discus competition which features the top six throwers in the world this season.

There will be sharp Irish interest, too, in the women's 5,000 metres, in which Cathy McCandless and Valerie Vaughan run off for a place in the Olympic squad.

The head to head between the Irish girls was only finalised on Wednesday and presupposes that Marie McMahon, second in the National Championships, has been selected to join Sonia O'Sullivan for the other two Irish nominations for this event in Atlanta.

. Less than 24 hours after sustaining an Achilles' tendon injury at Lausanne, where she had failed to finish her great showdown with the new world champion and world record holder, Kim Batten, Sally Gunnell yesterday insisted the show would go on.

According to her doctor she may be fit to compete again in three week's time when she hopes to defend her 400 metres hurdles title in Atlanta. Swiss doctor Rolf Biedert said he did not think the injury was any more serious than inflammation and after giving her an injection to help speed her recovery said that if everything went well she could be ready to race in Atlanta.