Catherina McKiernan has received a massive vote of confidence from BLE who have pre-selected her for every major international championship, up to and including the Olympic Games in Sydney.

It's an unprecedented decision by the BLE management committee and reflects McKiernan's growing stature as a world-class international competitor.

Among the events included in the package are the World and European marathon championships, World and European cross country championships and European Cup competitions.

It is a huge investment in McKiernan who, at the age of 28, has found a new sense of purpose in a career which, after a series of mishaps on the track, appeared to be in some danger of running aground.

Now, thanks to her decision to concentrate on road racing and the management skills of Ray Flynn, that is beginning to change and she finds herself on course to profit from an impressive sequence of nine wins, culminating in her success in the Cross Oeust-France race over 4.8 kilometres at Le Mans on Sunday.

Coupled with her earlier success in the big international race in Durham, it showed that she was capable of delivering another big challenge for the world cross country title. Instead, she has decided to put that target on hold until next year's race in Belfast and devote the next three months to preparing fully for the London marathon.

That preparatory programme has still to be completed but it will almost certainly include a half marathon at Lisbon on March 15th. In the meantime, she is preparing for a rare home appearance in Ras na hEireann at Dunleer on Sunday week.

In beating the reigning European champion Jolsiae Llado of France at Le Mans at the weekend, McKiernan was following in the footsteps of Sonia O'Sullivan who triumphed in the same race six years ago.

O'Sullivan, currently training at altitude in northern Australia, made it clear yesterday that she has no plans to follow the Cavan athlete out of the World championship in Morocco.

"That's been part of my schedule from day one and nothing has happened to make me want to change my mind," said O'Sullivan. "Working at altitude has been great for me - it feels as if I've made a new beginning.

"I've had time to look at mistakes I may have made in the past and take the necessary decisions. Now I feel more relaxed, more confident in what I'm doing and it will show in my performances.

"Although there is no track near the camp, I've been doing a lot of running with the Australian distance squad. I'm here for another fortnight and then I run in a cross country race at Canberra on February 8th. There are track races scheduled for Melbourne and Sydney and after that, I should be in perfect shape for Morocco."

This year's cross country championship programme has been dramatically restyled. Thanks to a decision taken by the IAAF two years ago, there will be two senior races for men and women with the longer race for women over eight kilometres.

In the expectation that McKiernan would compete, BLE made a policy decision to enter a team in the longer event, a ruling which was scarcely in O'Sullivan's best interests. Now with the Cavan athlete out, the O'Sullivan camp believe that it warrants a change of policy and that an entry should be submitted for the five kilometres race.

That is a view which is apparently shared by Una English, another member of the squad which finished in the bronze medal position in Turin last March and who is hoping to be selected for the European indoor championships as part of her preparation for Morocco.

It all adds up to substantial pressure on BLE officials, but there is no indication yet of a change of tack. However, it is likely that the subject will discussed again within the next few weeks.