Catherina McKiernan has informed the Irish selectors that she will not be available to lead the team in the European Cross Country Championships at Ferrara in Italy on December 13th.

The squad is due to be announced after the National Inter-Counties Championship in Ballyhaise, Co Cavan, next Sunday.

It was hoped that McKiernan would run in her home county before travelling to Italy in search of a second European success. That plan has now been revised, however, and the likelihood is that she will have her next race in Durham on January 2nd.

Looking further ahead, she will be attracted by the opportunity of returning to Dunleer where she got such a memorable reception in winning last year's Ras na hEireann. The logical progression would then be a trip to Belfast for the World Championships in March.

Joe Doonan, who has planned her programme so carefully in recent years, said the possibility of winning a world title on home terrain, is one of the most powerful incentives of all for an athlete.

John Treacy will readily vouch for that after winning the men's championship for a second time at Limerick in 1979. The problem for McKiernan, however, is that if she yields to the allure of the Belfast race, she may well put at risk her hopes of a big marathon run in April.

With a reputation as one of the highest paid road runners in the world, the evaluation to be made by the Cavan athlete is one of prestige versus cash. And in the hard commerce of modern sport, it's not too difficult to guess her final decision. At this point she has the choice of London or Rotterdam for her fourth marathon.

It was in London last April that she came of age as a formidable road racing competitor by beating Liz McColgan, but the fact that Rotterdam was the venue for Tegla Laroupe's world record earlier this year may incline her towards a trip to Holland.

In McKiernan's absence, Maureen Harrington will be installed as favourite to keep her title at Ballyhaise. But with Una English and Valerie Vaughan in the field, victory may prove a lot more elusive for the Kerry runner on this occasion.

English, an impressive athlete who was in the team which finished third in the world championships last year, has returned from Switzerland to prepare for the 1999 race in Belfast. Vaughan, another member of that squad, has likewise decided to prepare in Ireland after cutting short her stay in the United States.

A feature of the men's championship will be the first appearance of the talented Belfast athlete, Dermot Donnelly, who has rejected the chance of a career with Britain to run for Ireland.

Two other Northern athletes, Gareth Turnbull and Colm McLean, both students at St Malachy's College, are expected to run well in the Junior race.

Ireland finished 13th in the Ekiden road relay race in Chiba, Japan, yesterday. The Irish splits were - 10km: Rosemary Ryan 34.01: 5km - Elaine Fitzgerald 16.45: 10km - Margaret Synott 36.21; 5km - Geraldine Hendricken 16.59: 4.76km - Pauline Quinn 17.00: 7.42km - Mary Donoghoe 25.47.

The double world record holder Haile Gebrselassie has offered to help British distance running out of the doldrums - as long as the athletes go to Ethiopia. Gebrselassie, named world male athlete of the year, has promised to pass on the secrets of his success to any British runner making the trip to his home in the capital Addis Ababa.

Gebrselassie was in Birmingham yesterday to announce his attempt on the world indoor 5,000 metres record at the Indoor Arena next February.