Carroll facing uphill battle

One of the first impressions of Lisbon is how every side street appears to go uphill. That's exactly the sort of battle facing Mark Carroll in his quest for some sort of reward in the 3,000 metres.

Off all the 28 titles up for grabs over the next three days, the Cork athlete faces the greatest sprinkling of world-class athletes with major credentials to their name.

Hicham El Guerrouj of Morocco has chosen the 3,000 metres to seek some redemption for his Olympic failure.

Million Wolde of Ethiopia is here as Olympic 5,000 metre champion. And his countryman Hailu Mekonnen is world indoor two-mile record holder. And those are but a few.

"To come away with any silverware here will be a good weekend's work," says Carroll. This will be his first 3,000 metres of the season, but with a hamstring injury now behind him, and a three minutes 54:55 seconds mile in his legs, Carroll is certainly looking closer at Sunday's final than this morning's heats.

Daniel Caulfield, who last month improved the Irish 800 metre indoor record to 1.47:21, faces a similar presence of Africans in the heats this afternoon. Kenya's David Lelei is to the fore of the world lists with his 1.45:65, and defending champion Johan Botha of South Africa is also in town after running 1.45:80 in Stockholm. But most people's favourite will be the Russian Yuriy Borzakov skiy, fastest in the world this year with 1.44:15.

Completing the Irish interest today will be Peter Coghlan and Karen Shinkins, who go in the heats of the 60 metre hurdles and 400 metres respectively. Coghlan admits that he "hasn't been setting the world on fire so far this season", but he is confident of improving his season's best of 6.68 seconds and that could see him through to the final.

Shinkins has had her most consistent indoor season ever, twice lowering her Irish record to 52.31 seconds. She too has genuine ambitions of reaching the final, especially after a narrow fourth-place finish in the European Indoor championships in Gent last year.

Meanwhile, the World Cross Country Championships moved venue yet again yesterday. After the foot-and-mouth crisis forced the cancellation of Leopards town, the IAAF chose Brussels as the alternative but lack of accommodation there means the northern Belgian town of Ostend will instead host the event on March 24th-25th.