CATHERINA McKIERNAN is fit and ready to assist Ireland's challenge for the women's team title in the World Cross Country Championship at Turin, a week on Sunday.

With the spotlight focussed firmly on Sonia O'Sullivan, McKiernan returned last week almost unnoticed from altitude training in New Mexico.

During her stay she took time out to travel to Dallas where she won a 10,000 metres road race. That win confirms that, after a protracted recovery from injury, she has developed a fine racing edge in the countdown to her biggest assignment of the season.

"At one point I feared that I wouldn't have enough time to prepare properly for the championship, but with luck I think I may now have got it just right," she said.

"My training over the last month or so has gone well, the problems I had with my foot are finished and I'm looking forward to a good run in Turin."

McKiernan is Ireland's most successful athlete in women's cross country competition. Runner up in the worlds on four occasions, McKiernan knows exactly what is required to end that exasperating run in Italy.

For all her current feeling of well being, she is still not prepared to abandon deeply held principles and talk a good race before the action starts. Yet, one gets the expression that she may, indeed, be primed for a big run.

It is in her favour that the distance for this year's race has been extended to 6,600 metres, redressing in part the imbalance which has developed in recent years with pace becoming just as important as power in what traditionally has been an endurance event.

Against that, however, there is some concern that the Turin course is like none other in cross country history. Not only is it predominantly parkland, but in parts it traverses paths and roadway. The IAAF has insisted that this area should be covered with artificial grass, but there is much speculation as to what would happen if the weather in Italy deteriorates towards the end of next week.

O'Sullivan is one of those who favour the move away from heavy, uneven terrain, although even she is uncertain how the concept off running on artificial surfaces will change the essential priorities of cross country competition.

After running so well in Paris, she plans to ease back in training in London over the next few days before re applying herself to the challenge of staying competitive on her return to cross country competition after an interval of five years.

On that occasion, she performed well to finish in seventh place, without ever generating the momentum to join McKiernan and the American Lynn Jennings in a tremendous battle for the individual title.

This is the first occasion that prizemoney has been on offer for the showpiece of the cross country season and judged on the evidence of a similar development in the indoor championships in Paris, it's going to make for even more intense competition.

The organisers of the Paris event were well pleased with the level of competition over the three days of the programme. American scepticism was, perhaps, best reflected in Michael Johnson's decision to stay away, but in view of the favourable notices which Paris earned, it will be interesting to see if they persist with that attitude in two years' time.

By that stage the IAAF may well have advanced their ambitious plan to guarantee every finalist a share of the prizemoney. They may even be persuaded to compensate Wilson Kipketer for the £30,000 bonus denied him after he twice smashed the world 800 metres indoor record in the space of 48 hours.