O'Sullivan can judge her pace

Sonia O'Sullivan will arrive at an important point in her preparations for the Olympic Games when she takes her place on the start line for the 5,000 metres in today's British Grand Prix meeting at Crystal Palace.

It will be her last competitive run at the distance before setting down in Sydney and the minimum requirement is a seasonal best to convince her that her build up to the Games is, indeed, on schedule.

For O'Sullivan, London offers an opportunity of putting down markers for those who share her dreams of striking gold in Australia.

Earlier this week, there was a significant revision of the 5,000-metres forecasts for Sydney after the relatively unproven Russian Olga Egorova produced the fastest time of her career in beating the two Ethiopians, Gete Wami and Derartu Tulu in 14 minutes 42.91 seconds.

That was made possible by a scorching last 400 metres of just under 60 seconds, an astounding burst of pace by an athlete who had finished some way behind the Irish woman over 3,000 metres at Nice.

Although her name does not figure on the official list of entries, there was some speculation yesterday that the Russian may show up for today's meeting before heading to Zurich next Friday.

"I was led to believe that she will run here, but I guess I'm going to have to wait until I get to the warm-up area to find out for certain," said O'Sullivan.

"It helped that she still had a lot of running left in her legs after a second-last lap of 73 seconds, but it was something else to see the way she covered the last 400 metres.

"For me, it proved that you simply cannot afford to concentrate on just two or three athletes in Sydney and discount the rest. The truth is that nobody has run well on a consistent basis so far and anything can happen in Australia."

For all the outward reservations, however, one gets the impression that she is on good terms with herself. She worked exceptionally well in training on Tuesday and, if she takes that form onto the track today, she could get close to her Irish record of 14:41.53.

Even without Egorova, today's race is of sufficient quality to ensure some absorbing drama. Paula Radcliffe will, as ever, run from the front.

Tegla Loroupe and Sally Borsosio will ensure a strong African presence and O'Sullivan will also be keeping a wary eye on her training partner Elana Meyer, after the South African's achievement in running 14:58.00 for the distance in Stockholm.

Overall, there will be no shortage of world class athletes on parade, as the quickening countdown to Sydney induces that extra effort from athletes who, to this point, have frequently been content to deflect the spotlight onto others.

Last Tuesday's Grand Prix in Sweden made the point well and two of those who thrilled the crowd on that occasion Ato Boldon and Marion Jones again give promise of some exceptional sprinting.

Boldon, the world 200-metres champion, has found himself centre-stage since the recent misfortunes of Maurice Greene, Michael Johnson and Donovan Bailey and will now be looking for another fast 100 metres.

Marion Jones will be hoping to get close to her Stockholm figures of 10.68 seconds.

For those who have admired the astounding performances of Haile Gebrselassie in recent years, there is the prospect of another captivating run by the little Ethiopian in the men's 5,000 metres.