Sonia O'Sullivan's attempt to build a successful road-racing career, will reach a significant stage on October 4th when she competes in the Great North Run at Gateshead.

O'Sullivan, who has converted to cross-country competition with spectacular success in recent years, views the switch to road-running as a logical move at a time when more and more of the money in athletics is concentrated in this area.

Her next run will be in the Cork mini-marathon next Sunday, an appointment which will enable her to renew local acquaintances after a significant win in the World Cup championship at Johannesburg at the weekend.

In terms of prestige, however, it doesn't compare with the Great North Run, which, over a relatively short period of time, has acquired a reputation as one of the most important of its type.

The entry for this year's race is still being formulated but it is expected to include several established international athletes, including Liz McColgan and Yvonne Murray.

Missing, however, will be Catherina McKiernan, because the race comes a week too early to fit into her preparations for her attempt on the world marathon record at Amsterdam on November 1st.

McKiernan, at the centre of a major controversy last week when BLE refused to nominate her for the world half-marathon championship at Zurich on September 27th, will now run in the Route de Vin race in Luxembourg on the same date.

After that, she travels to France for a 10-kilometre road race on October 11th, her last competitive run before her attempt on Tecla Lorupe's record at Amsterdam.

"It's unfortunate timing, for had the Gateshead race been held a week later, it would have been perfect preparation for Amsterdam," she said. "I need two weeks out of competition after Luxembourg and another run three weeks before Amsterdam, and the Great North Run meets neither of those requirements."

The effect will be to put on hold, the race of the decade in Irish athletics as O'Sullivan and McKiernan go their different ways. They haven't lined up in the same race since the world cross-country championship at Turin 18 months ago when they helped Ireland into third place.

In the intervening period, their careers have prospered with O'Sullivan recording a double success in the cross-country championships in Morocco and supplementing it with two more gold medals in the European championships in Budapest last month.

McKiernan, for her part, has embarked on a remarkable sequence of success since Turin and now ranks among the top three road runners in the world. Inevitably, a race between the two Irish superstars is firing the imagination of athletics promoters but as of now, it remains a matter of conjecture.

Belfast is a possible setting for the duel, when the world cross country championship is staged there next March. Statements last week suggested that McKiernan was unlikely to run in the championship but yesterday she insisted that it remains an option.

"I never at any point said that I wouldn't run in Belfast," she said. "Nobody has been more committed to this race over the years but at this point, I'm just not in a position to confirm that I will compete in a race which is still six months away."

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has declared its opposition to an Australian proposal that would send athletes to jail for using banned performance-enhancing drugs.

At a meeting of the IOC in South Korea, one senior official said no international sports organisations would want to stage events in Australia in the future if the proposal goes through.

The Australian Olympic Committee last month said the penalty for possession, manufacturing and trafficking of steroids and other banned substances should be the same as those for illicit narcotics.

Under the proposal, anyone importing large amounts of drugs into Australia could be jailed for life, while an athlete testing positive for steroids could face a two-year prison term.

That raised the prospect of drug cheats being thrown into jail during the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

"I can not imagine the IOC moving the games out of Sydney," said IOC's Francois Carrard.

"But I can not imagine athletes in jail either. We are confident there will be very reasonable solutions for all the parties."