The build-up to the World Cross Country championships at Belfast next weekend, was heightened yesterday with the news that Gete Wami will challenge for the women's title.

Wami, the outstanding woman in cross country competition this season, leads an Ethiopian squad which is certain to be in contention for the team award.

Third behind Sonia O'Sullivan and Paula Radcliffe in the corresponding event at Marrakesh last year, she won the title at Cape Town in 1996 when Catherina McKiernan was among those who followed her home.

Later that year, she finished third in the Olympic 10,000 metres championship in Atlanta and after a relatively lean spell last season, has come back as formidable as ever to head the current World Cross points table.

Her inclusion in the field, will lengthen the odds against Radcliffe's chances of ending a frustrating sequence of near misses in her attempt to corner the title which has motivated her for much of the last seven years.

Earlier this season, the English runner finished a well beaten second behind the Ethiopian in the Durham international race. Since then, she has been training at altitude but it remains to be seen if that will convert into a winning performance.

Sonia O'Sullivan will attend the meeting in her official capacity as a member of BLE's delegation.

Apart from Wami, Zohra Quazia of Morocco, who finished second to O'Sullivan in the short course championship at Marrakesh will ensure a strong African presence. And with Switzerland's Anita Weyermann, an impressive winner at Belfast in January, also in search of the title, it promises to be an absorbing struggle all the way to the finish line.

The entry for the men's short course championship has been enriched by Noureddine Morceli's decision to take advantage of the race to prepare for another big track season.

If the Olympic 1,500 metres champion has found himself upstaged over the last couple of years by Hicham El Guerrouj of Morocco, he remains one of the sport's most captivating personalities. Now, at the start of a long build up to the world track championships in Seville in August, he is seeking a first World Cross Country title.

Catherina McKiernan who, like O'Sullivan, will be a mere onlooker to the Belfast drama, learned at the weekend that her arch marathon rival, Tegla Loroupe of Kenya is back in form.

Loroupe warmed up for an attempt on her own world marathon record at Rotterdam next month, by winning the Lisbon half marathon in 67 minutes 51 seconds, marginally slower than McKiernan's figures in winning last year's race in the Portuguese capital.

Equally significantly, Fernanda Ribeiro, who opposes the Irish athlete in the London marathon on April 18th, ran well to finish second to the Kenyan.

Gillian O'Sullivan and Deirdre Gallagher finished first and third respectively, in the British 20 kilometres walking championship at Lemington Spa but as guest entries, neither qualified for medals.