Sonia O'Sullivan is expected to compete in next month's world cross country championships at Villamoura, Portugal.

She has already informed Athletics Ireland she will return to cross country competition, after missing out on last year's championships at Belfast.

She has yet to decide, however, whether to run in either the long or short course events, or, as she did with such spectacular success in Morocco two years ago, undertake the double on consecutive days.

A winner's prize of approximately £30,000 will be on offer in each race. Additionally, bonuses are normally paid to successful athletes on shoe and other sponsorship deals.

The former champion, who has run only four, low-key races since giving birth to her first child, Ciara last June, had planned to wait until after competing in the Australian 10,000 metres championship at Sydney next week before making up her mind about the cross country championships.

But her performance in her first two races in Australia, one over 1,500 metres last Friday, the other a 5,000 metres event in which she easily eclipsed the Olympic qualifying time two days later, convinced her that her form justifies the trip to the Algarve.

O'Sullivan is in Melbourne, where she plans to run another 5,000 metres before she applies herself next week to the challenge of getting a qualifying standard for the Olympic 10,000 metres.

"From day one that's been my big target here in Australia, and judged on the way I've run my first two races I'm fairly optimistic I'll get it," she said. "But I'm still only learning the event and I can't afford to take anything for granted.

"It's important to me that I get a 10k qualifying mark sooner rather than later. That way I can put the event to the back of my mind for the next three or four months and push on with the job of getting myself into condition for the Games." O'Sullivan's decision to compete in the Algarve could present the Ireland selectors with a problem. They have already made tentative plans to enter a team for the women's long course championship, but not for the shorter, 4k race.

This was based on a pledge they made to athletes last autumn that if the team finished in the top six in the European long course championship - a target they duly met - they would be entered for the world tests.

Unfortunately, Catherina McKiernan, currently recuperating from injury, will not be able to accept automatic selection. But with O'Sullivan in the team the Irish could go close to emulating their achievement in Italy a couple of years ago when they won bronze medals.

If, on the other hand, the Cork athlete decides to concentrate exclusively on the shorter distance, it will heighten the pressure on the selectors to change tack and nominate a 4k squad.

Cuba's Javier Sotomayor has withdrawn from an indoor high jump meet in Greece after an IAAF decision last weekend to suspend him from competition.

Sotomayor (32), tested positive for cocaine at the Pan American Games last year and could face a two-year ban.

He was among six athletes suspended by the IAAF on Saturday after they were referred to its arbitration panel on doping charges.