Vaughan, English join O'Sullivan

Sonia O'Sullivan will welcome the opportunity of sharing the spotlight with her Ireland team-mates, Valerie Vaughan and Una English, when she opens her defence of the world 5,000 metres championship today. For all the glamour and the financial rewards which go with it, international sport is a hard, demanding business in which pressure can occasionally induce loneliness.

And even by the diminished standards which now, sadly, serve as the norm, the exchanges which followed the women's 1,500 metres championship final on Tuesday were disturbing in the extreme.

In the manner of her calling, O'Sullivan was out in the bright morning sunshine, attempting to distance herself from the pain, physical and psychological, of the previous evening.

Today, she abandons 1,500 metres competition for the different priorities of the 5,000 metres, an event which she won when it was introduced to the world championships at Gothenburg two years ago. The change, I suspect, will not be unwelcome, for at a time when she is encountering problems in summoning the old pace for big kicking finishes to 1,500 metres races, the longer distance may be less intimidating at this point.

Not that the intensity of the competition is likely to be less pronounced. In fact, it could scarcely be otherwise with Portugal's Fernanda Ribeiro heading a line-up which includes many of the great names in middle distance running.

While Carla Sacramento was achieving a prized win over O'Sullivan and others in the 1,500 final, Ribeiro was involved in another tremendous duel, involving the Kenyan, Sally Borsosio, in the 10,000 metres final.

Ultimately, even Ribeiro's remarkable strength couldn't break the young Kenyan. But Ribeiro, the world 5,000 metres record holder at 14 minutes 36.45 seconds, still displayed enough of her enormous talent to suggest that she is capable of adding this title to her Olympic 10,000 metres gold medal.

Present, too, will be the formidable Kenyan, Lydia Cheronei, an athlete with a best time of 14:46.93, some five seconds slower than O'Sullivan's career best. Also in the field are Anne Marie Sandel of Finland, a former European Junior cross country champion, and Amy Rudolph, the American who has prepared for this championship in Cork.

O'Sullivan believes her three 1,500 metres races were the ideal preparation for her title defence. With six to qualify from each of the two semi-finals together with the three fastest losers, she should progress without too many problems.

And there are slim hopes, too, that Una English, a second Irish representative, may qualify, although her best figures of 17:28.57 leave her with work to do.

Valerie Vaughan, unlucky to miss out on a place in the Olympic squad last summer, runs in the second semi-final which includes the championship favourite, Gabriele Szabo. Szabo's time of 24:42.43, recorded at Oslo, rates as the season's fastest and will leave all the others with a lot of hard work to do to catch her.

Zahra Quaziz, the Moroccan who took silver behind O'Sullivan at Gothenburg, will almost certain qualify for Saturday's final, and others with their sights trained on that target include, Roberto Brunet of Italy and Britain's Paula Ratcliffe.

As in the case of the women's equivalent, the men's 5,000 metres has been condensed into just two races, a decision which means that Mark Carroll, who arrived here from Cork on Wednesday, will not run until tomorrow.