Sonia O'Sullivan's preparations for Sydney will bring her on course for a meeting with Russia's double Olympic champion, Svetlana Masterkova over 1,500 metres, in the Bislett Games at Oslo this evening.
At this stage of her career, O'Sullivan no longer has pretence to a place among the best 1,500-metres runners in the world. And yet, in the context of her build up to the Olympic 5,000 and 10,000 metres championships, it still promises to be a significant occasion.
To date, her journey to peak-racing fitness for Sydney has been steady rather than spectacular. Now, she will be looking for reassuring evidence that she retains a sufficient amount of her old pace to sustain her at the longer distances.
In finishing fourth over 3,000 metres at Nice earlier in the month, her response to a mid-race surge was less than impressive, but the hope is that, three weeks on, she will be better equipped to cope.
"It's a quality field containing several obvious threats, but, from my point of view, the main purpose of the exercise will be to get a line on my current form," she said. "My training is going well, but you need races like this to find out exactly where you are in terms of racing fitness.
"I guess people like Masterkova will be looking for the same signals and, in that sense, it should be very informative."
Apart from Masterkova, an easy winner in four minutes 2.78 seconds at Barcelona on Tuesday, there are several Olympic hopefuls in the field, among them, Lydia Chojecka (Poland), Naomi Migo (Kenya), Kutere Dulecha (Ethiopia), Carla Sacramento (Portugal) and Masterkova's Russian team-mate Olga Kutznetsova.
The other big focal point for the Irish will be the Mobil Dream Mile in which Mark Carroll will be numbered among the supporting cast for a world-record attempt by the double world champion, Hicham El Guerrouj of Morocco.
El Guerrouj, approaching Sydney with all the burdens of a man who is expected to win in grand style, currently holds the record at 3:43.13, set on a memorable evening at Rome last year.
So far, his best in Oslo has been 3:44.90, but he believes that this meeting offers him the best chance this year of eclipsing his astounding Rome figures. "The atmosphere at the Bislett meeting is very special and, if the conditions are right, I think the crowd can help me to a new record," he said.
For Carroll, like all others in the race, the hope is that the Moroccan can tow him to career-best figures. The Irishman was someway below his best on his seasonal European debut at Barcelona last Tuesday when he finished more than three seconds outside Ray Flynn's national 1,500 metres record, finishing in 3: 36.91.
Afterwards, he attributed his disappointing run to fatigue, but now, with the benefit of three days rest, he is quietly confident of a more expansive performance in a race which will include his Barcelona conqueror, Rui Silva of Portugal.
Gail Devers, whose time of 12.33 seconds in winning the American trials at Sacramento was the fastest in the world this season, goes in the women's 100-metres hurdles. The world 5,000-metres title-holder, Salah Hissou of Morocco, will be renewing rivalry with the three men who finished immediately behind him at Seville last summer.
Meanwhile, Susan Smith-Walsh has decided on the unusual and will run the 800 metres in tomorrow's Dublin International in Santry. It will a debut over the distance for the 400-metres hurdles specialist, but the Waterford athlete has decided to make the most of the world-class field, which includes Russia's Olga Raspopava, who ran 1:56.60 last week.
