Berlin is to be the venue for the return meeting of Sonia O'Sullivan and Gabriela Szabo, a grudge race which is already firing the imagination of much of the athletics world.
The Irish athlete, restored to her former glory after a superb double in the European Championships 5,000 metres and 10,000 metres, is already committed to running in the German Grand Prix meeting next Tuesday.
And before leaving Budapest for her home in Bucharest yesterday, Szabo cofirmed that she, too, plans to take her place on the starting line for a re-run of their absorbing 5,000 metres duel on Sunday.
"I now intend to go home and take six days rest before running in Berlin," she said. "I am not to happy with my performances in Budapest and now I must sit down and ask what went wrong for me.
"After the final of the 5,000 metres, I said I was disappointed with the way Sonia O'Sullivan ran the race and her refusal to do any work at the front.
"That is still my opinion but I helped her in another way by not running to my best form. Nothing will compensate for losing the final here but it would still be nice to win in Berlin."
O'Sullivan who celebrated her unique double success late into the night before leaving the Hungarian capital yesterday, will prepare for the return meeting with the Romanian by running a 1,500 metres at Brussels on Friday.
As yet, she has still to win on the Grand prix circuit this summer but now she believes that she is capable of redressing that situation.
"The European championships were always my big objective this season and everything that happened in the last few months was geared towards helping me getting ready for that," she said.
"Now they are over and I've done what I set out to do, and with that off my mind, I can now apply myself fully to Grand Prix racing."
Mark Carroll, Ireland's other European medallist, is due to run in Lausanne tomorrow but a final decision depends on how quickly he recovers from shin injury which required constant treatment during his stay in Budapest.
He again complained of soreness after finishing third in the 5,000 metres on Saturday but with his confidence at an all time high, he will run in Switzerland if it is possible.
Susan Smith is also scheduled to run in Switzerland but James McIlroy, one of the most exciting newcomers to surface here, has rejected an invitation to run the 800 metres. Instead, he plans to have his next race in either Brussels or Berlin.
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