Catherina McKiernan is headed for one of her biggest tests and, almost certainly, her biggest pay day, in London next April.

It was announced yesterday that the Cavan athlete, newly converted to road running, is to compete in the London Marathon on April 26th against the world marathon champion, Hiromi Suzuki of Japan, and Scotland's Liz McColgan.

It follows her spectacular introduction to marathon running in Berlin in October when she was less than three minutes outside the world record in recording a time of two hours 23 minutes 44 seconds.

The effect of that was to give her a profile which she rarely enjoyed, even at the summit of a highly successful cross-country career. And she supplemented it by winning road races at shorter distances in Amsterdam and Barcelona in recent weeks.

Even in decline, the London marathon still rates as one of the most attractive of its type and with substantial funding available for elite athletes, the invitation for McKiernan to compete is a prized one.

In terms of road running, she is still little more than a novice. Yet depending on her progress over the next year, she may yet go on to build a big career in what has been, in recent times, one of the most lucrative facets of athletics.

Commenting on McKiernan's arrival as a road runner of some stature, the London race director, Dave Bedford, said: "I believe that anyone who can run a debut marathon in 2-23-44, is capable of seriously threatening the world record of 2-21-06. McKiernan could well rewrite the record books given that London is the course where the record was set by Ingrid Kristiansen in 1985.

"Competition is very important in record attempts and it doesn't come much stronger than that provided by the world champion Suzuki and the hugely experienced McColgan."

Suzuki, one of the new breed of Japanese marathon runners, was an impressive winner of the world marathon title in Athens in August when beating the defending champion, Manuela Machado of Portugal, by 400 metres. It was only her third marathon run and followed second placings in races in Osaka and Nagova.

McColgan won the London marathon in 1996 but failed to repeat that success in dramatic circumstances this year. After leading for much of the last mile, she was caught and passed in the run to the line by Joyce Chepchumba of Kenya.

The London event, which will again be sponsored by Flora, has a cut-off point of 41,000 for entries. The men's race race was won last year by Portugal's Antonio Pinto who is expected to defend his title.