Radcliffe out for O'Sullivan's title

The task awaiting Sonia O'Sullivan in her defence of the World Cross Country title in March, may come more sharply into focus after today's Coca Cola international race in Belfast.

O'Sullivan, currently preparing in Australia for what she hopes will be another triumphant year, has several potentially dangerous challengers in the line up at Stormont Castle.

One of them, Paula Radcliffe, will be hoping to seize the opportunity to remind the champion that at 25, she has at last acquired the maturity to deliver on the high promise of her success in the world Junior championship in 1992.

In the intervening years, the Liverpool athlete has come tantalisingly close to realising that ambition, failing by just two seconds to Deratu Tulu of Ethiopia in 1997 and by three seconds to O'Sullivan at Marrakesh last March.

Now, after some altitude training in the Pyrenees in October, she believes she is ready to make it a case of third time lucky and is looking to today's race to make the point.

"After finishing fourth in Brussels and second in Durham in the last five weeks, my progression is right and hopefully, I'll be able to keep it going now." she said.

"Belfast has been a reasonably lucky venue for me in the past and a win tomorrow, would be very encouraging for the World Championship coming up in two months time."

To keep her preparations on schedule, Radcliffe must deal with the challenge of Mariana Chirila, the compact Romanian who pushed her back into third place in last year's race at Upper Malone.

There, too, will be the two Kenyans, Joyce and Susan Chepchumba, Olivia Jevtic of Yugoslavia and, not least, the Swiss athlete, Anita Weyermann, a world Junior track champion at 1,500 and 3,000 metres, who finished fourth behind O'Sullivan in the short course championship in Morocco.

With O'Sullivan training in Australia and Catherina McKiernan still recovering from a knee injury, Irish interest in the women's race will be largely peripheral but Dermot Donnelly and Seamus Power give hope of a bigger local contribution in the men's event.

Donnelly, looking forward to the challenge of proving himself against top class opposition on home terrain, will be hoping to build on a useful run when winning at the Tullamore road racing festival last month.

Power has a superior cross country background but a substandard performance in the European Championships in Italy, said it all about his disappointing season to date. He was appreciably closer to his best in finishing fourth at Dunleer last week and while the physical legacies of that run are considerable, he still proposes to take his place on the start line today.

Neither Irishman, however, is expected to trouble the favourite, Hendrik Ramaala of South Africa who supplemented his success in the Glen Dimplex cross-Border race with some impressive performances in world cross events.

Others with obvious chances of figuring in the firing line at the finish include the Kenyan, Laban Chege, Carsten Jorgenssen, a former European cross country champion and Germany's Damien Kallabis who won the European steeplechase title in Budapest.

Gerry Murray of Finn Valley, will lead the Irish squad taking part in an international race in Portugal tomorrow.