Farthest from the mind of Sonia O'Sullivan right now is the last time she ran the World Athletics Championships, writes Ian O'Riordan in Paris

That was six years ago when she came to Athens as defending 5,000 metres champion and bombed out in the heats. A forgettable chapter in her extraordinary career.

But that experience does serve some purpose in assessing her chances in Paris. This evening O'Sullivan runs in heat two of the 5,000 metres (6.27 Irish time), and progression beyond that race can't be seen as certain.

Not least because she's been drawn against Ethiopia's awesome 10,000 metres champion, Berhane Adere, and her old Romanian rival Gabriela Szabo.

What is likely is that O'Sullivan will need to run hard and close to her season's best, and if that happens she can definitely start thinking about Saturday's final.

And just like 1997, there are certain question marks over O'Sullivan's form coming into the championships, only they wouldn't be as bold. But her timing does appear to be right. After a slow and often puzzling start to the summer, her last three races - in London, Dublin and Zurich - have gone exactly to plan, each displaying steady and necessary improvement.

Only a major step back then would see her fail to get out of the heats.

There are 33 runners between the two races, with the top five in each assured of a place in the final, and then the five fastest losers of the two.

The advantage of going in the second heat and knowing what sort of time should progress is also a comfort for O'Sullivan. But that really is where the comfort ends. Seven athletes in her race have clocked faster times over the distance this season, with Adere's best of 14 minutes 29.32 from Oslo in June just one second off the world record. And the Ethiopian remains intent on leaving Paris with two gold medals.

Then there is Szabo, who has run 14:41.35, the Kenyan Isabelle Ochichi (14:52.33) and the truly dangerous Russian Yelena Zadorozhnaya, who took bronze behind O'Sullivan in the European championships last summer, and hasn't stopped improving since.

What is certain too is that women's 5,000-metre running at this level has never been stronger. Paula Radcliffe's absence is justifiably lamented by the British, but there is no easy ticket to the final. Both heats are equally stacked and it will truly be a world-class final.

Heat one for example also contains the latest Chinese sensation, Yingjie Sun, who very nearly upset the Ethiopian plans in last Saturday's classic 10,000-metre final before eventually taking bronze.

Still only 25, Sun was once turned away by the eclectic Chinese coach Ma Junren because he felt she "had no talent".

Well you don't run 30:07.20 for 10,000 metres like she did last Saturday without talent. Though she barely moves her arms while running, Sun covers ground exactly like the company she endorses, Chinese Railways.

And it seems certain she will make the first race fast, which again won't do O'Sullivan any favours.

Such details however weren't bothering O'Sullivan when she arrived in Paris from her London home yesterday afternoon. Her confidence has been building for a couple of weeks now. And she'd watched the 10,000 metres final on television at the weekend, where the top 15 finishers set a best of some sort, and that just added to her anticipation.

"I'm really looking forward to getting out and running in these championships now," she said. "When I was watching the 10,000 metres I was getting pretty excited. I have to say Adere looked very strong but there are a lot of other good girls in the 5,000.

"And most of those will have been working all year to be at their best for this race. And most of them will. But I definitely feel I'm coming around at this stage, and things are going in the right direction for me too. So I should be able to get a good hard run out there."

There is little doubt now that O'Sullivan's last race before Paris, when she took second to Szabo over 3,000 metres in Zurich, was the perfect send-off.

Her time of 8:37.55 and the nature of the performance suggested she's not too far off a peak now, and she is clearly ready to improve her 5,000-metre season's best of 15:06.19, clocked in London earlier this month.

"I was delighted with my run in Zurich," she added. "And I felt very good after that race. Training has been going very well since and I feel I can be competitive out there."

Being competitive at these championships might be a little different to what O'Sullivan, now aged 33, is used to, and winning back the title she so convincingly won in Gothenburg in 1995 is not the primary goal.

A medal of any colour to add to the 11 major championship ones she already has to her name would certainly be as prized, and at this stage of her career even more cherished.

The truth is there are a dozen other athletes in this event thinking of leaving Paris with one of the medals too - Adere and her Ethiopian compatriots Tirunesh Dibaba and Meseret Defer; Szabo and Sun; Zadorozhnaya and her Russian team-mate Olga Yegorova; the Kenyan's Edith Masai and Ochichi; the enduring Moroccan Zahra Ouaziz and the Kenyan-born Dane Lornah Kiplagat; and the reigning European champion, Marta Dominguez of Spain.

Just the sort of competition the World Athletics Championships are all about.