Sonia O'Sullivan insists she is not concerned that she will again be competing over 3,000 metres rather than 5,000 or 10,000 metres in this evening's Nice Grand Prix - the place she collected a unique set of European Championship gold medals in 1998.
O'Sullivan remains unfazed about whether she runs the 5,000 or 10,000 metres in the Olympic Games. "I won't know until I get to Sydney what I will do. It isn't an issue what distance I run. I don't really need to make a decision now. I'm fit enough to run either race," she confirmed.
Equally, although facing a great rival in last year's world 10,000 metres gold medallist Gete Wami of Ethiopia on the Cote d'Azur, she said that she was not particularly worried about the opposition today.
The 30-year-old, with a season's fastest eight minutes 36.96 seconds, said: "You don't know who you'll be competing against until you get there and find out who has turned up.
"I'm happy with running 3,000 metres - it's one of my favourite distances. My aim will be to improve on my last performance in Paris a fortnight ago. My training tells me I should."
O'Sullivan added: "If there had been a 5,000 metres I would have been happy to run that. So it's the 3,000 again. I don't have any kind of strategy or plan about what distances I run."
Meanwhile, the Swiss anti-doping laboratory in Lausanne that carried out an analysis on urine samples from Jamaican sprinting great Merlene Ottey in July 1999 said it was "surprised" by the decision to lift the suspension on the athlete.
The Arbitration Tribunal of the world governing body, the IAAF, made the decision to lift the ban ruling that there was not enough evidence against the Jamaican, who tested positive for nandrolone on July 5th, 1999.
"In the Merlene Ottey affair the method and the tests applied by the Swiss anti-doping laboratory are trustworthy," said a statement from the Lausanne lab.
"Throughout this affair the procedure followed by the laboratory was conforming to the directives of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). The arbitrators have presumably been misled by a wholly false interpretation of the results.
"After the Lucerne meeting in July 1999, Merlene Ottey tested positive for nandrolone. The level detected was very largely superior to the permitted level."
Despite the absence of some key athletes, the Irish teams at this weekend's European Cup are hopeful of some significant results. The men, who compete in Kaunas, Lithuania, are seeking promotion from the second division, while the women, who compete in Bydgoszcz, Poland, will attempt to maintain their first-division status.
With the likes of James Nolan (800 metres), Paul Brizzel (100 and 200 metres) and Nicky Sweeney (discus) in the men's squad, there is good reason to expect their promotion. Nolan has shown excellent form of late, albeit over 1,500 metres, while Brizzel only recently improved the Irish 100 metres record.
Mark Carroll, who was expected to run the 3,000 metres but is remaining at his American training base until the end of the month, is the most notable absentee. Yet there is still hope of points in the distance races from Belfast's Dermot Donnelly (5,000 metres) and Dublin's Cormac Smith (3,000 metres steeplechase).
There is also plenty of experience in the field events, especially with Brendan Reilly in the high jump and Terry McHugh in the javelin. Also competing in the men's group are Armenia, Belarus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg and Moldova.
The women's team have also lost some guaranteed points as Sonia O'Sullivan is competing in Nice. However, there is a strong sprint selection with Emily Maher (100 metres), Ciara Sheehy (200 metres) and Karen Shinkins (400 metres) all coming off some impressive early season form.
In O'Sullivan's absence, Waterford's Elaine Fitzgerald will challenge for the 1,500 metres and there is also strong hopes for Una English over the 3,000 metres. The competition for the women will be Austria, Bulgaria, Belarus, Croatia, The Netherlands, Poland and Slovenia.
