Sydney countdown right on track

Sonia O'Sullivan has laid down her plans for a series of Grand Prix races in the coming weeks, starting with a 3,000 metres in Nice this Saturday, as she enters the more specific phase of her preparation for the Sydney Olympics.

Most significant perhaps is the British Grand Prix in London on August 5th, where O'Sullivan will have her first European outing over 5,000 metres. That may well be the race which determines the event she will run in Sydney in September, but as of now she remains undecided whether to run the 5,000 or 10,000 metres - or indeed both.

Her coach, Alan Storey, maintains that no decision will be made until later in the season but he does feel "that the training at the moment anyway is similar for both events".

Saturday's 3,000 metres in Nice follows O'Sullivan's two outings last month over the same distance - in Helsinki and Paris - and the preliminary entry list here indicates she is set to face some of her main rivals for Sydney, including Ethiopia's Gete Wami and Kenya's Tegla Loroupe.

After a three-week training block, O'Sullivan will run the 1500 metres at the Bislett Games in Oslo on Friday, July 28th. She will then follow London's race with another 3,000 metres in Zurich (August 11th), the 1500 metres at the Irish Championships (August 20th), and is due to finish her race build-up with another 5,000 metres in Brussels (August 25th). She has decided not to run in Berlin on September 1st, the final Golden League meeting prior to Sydney.

Having achieved both the 5,000 and 10,000 metres qualifying times in Australia earlier in the year - and with no plans to run the longer distance again before Sydney - her performance over the 5,000 metres in both London and Brussels will be crucial to her choice of event at the Games - now just over 10 weeks away.

The 5,000 metres comes first on the Sydney timetable (with the final on September 25th), and athletes will have a day's break before the 10,000 metre heats and subsequent final (on September 30th). An attempt on the double, however, cannot be totally discounted for the 30 year-old Cork woman.

Also confirmed for the Bislett Games is Mark Carroll, who will run in the 3,000 metres, although he will have his first major test over 5,000 metres - the event in which he will definitely run in Sydney - two weeks later in Zurich.

Carroll returns from his American training base on July 23rd for a 1500 metre race in Germany and is also due to run in London and at the Golden League meeting in Brussels before returning to the States to wind down his training before Sydney.

The 800-metre specialist James Nolan still has plans to achieve the 1500 metre qualifying time (three minutes 36:80 seconds) and give himself an option of events for Sydney. He had hoped to attempt the time in Lausanne tomorrow, but that field is already booked up and he'll now target races later in July.