Catherina McKiernan is likely to make her first championship appearance in almost two years, in the European cross country classic in Portugal in December.

It is a significant decision by an athlete who passed up the chance of success in the World Championships in Athens last year and again in the European tests in Budapest in August, because neither fitted into her training schedule for the marathon.

As yet, however, she is not in a position to give a commitment to run in the World Cross Country Championships in Belfast next March, stressing that a decision will not be made until the New Year.

Many would see in her choice to compete in Portugal, an encouraging augury for the Belfast race but for the moment, it remains merely a matter of conjecture.

"It's too far ahead to be making firm commitments, but at this point, it seems likely that I will be in Portugal in December to run the European championship," she said.

"After that, we'll see the way things develop but obviously, it all depends on how races fit my training for the marathon.

"Realistically, you can run only two marathons a year and everything else must be influenced by that. The race in Portugal on December 13th, comes six weeks after I run the Amsterdam marathon and that is just about the right recovery time for me."

It was, of course, the European cross country race which provided McKiernan with her first and, so far, only major international championship success back in 1995. In the intervening period, its status has been enhanced by the introduction of extra prize money, making it an attractive mid season target for many of the leading international runners.

Doubtless it now figures in the plans of many of those who competed in the European 5,000 and 10,000 metres championships in Budapest, among them, Fernanda Ribeiro of Portugal who won the Olympic 10,000 metres title in Atlanta.

Ribeiro, beset by injury problems in the early months of the summer, is currently taking a break from competition but the expectation is that she will have resumed serious training by the middle of November.

It is, of course, vaguely ironic that McKiernan is targeting the race in Portugal for her return to championship fare at a stage when she is being deprived of the opportunity of running in the world half marathon championship at Zurich next Sunday.

The circumstances of that regretable situation have been fully documented. Suffice to say that apart from the prize fund of £60,000, it has deprived her of the chance of a significant success in an event in which she is currently rated number three in the world.

Instead, she has accepted an alternative engagement in the Route de Vin race in Luxembourg where, with the notable exception of the German woman, Katrin Dorre-Heinig, the quality of the entry scarcely compares with that in Zurich.

And yet, in the context of preparing for the Amsterdam marathon on November 1st, an event which has occupied her attention ever since her spectacular success in the London marathon in April. She doesn't believe that she will be disadvantaged by the switch.

"The controversy about Zurich is by now, all water under a bridge - I've known for a couple of weeks where I will be running next Sunday," she said. "I am just as focused about running well in Luxembourg as I would have been in Zurich, just as keen to justify myself in the race.

"The quality of the athletes running against me is not the main consideration. My concern is to concentrate on my own performance and ensure that as far as possible, I run well on the day. And hopefully, I will."