SONIA O'SULLIVAN is ready to take the risk of running in Monday's Peace Meeting in Sarajevo - providing her form in today's Grand Prix meeting in Milan justifies it.

While athletes from across the world were stampeding to change air tickets in Milan yesterday, O'Sullivan said that she was prepared to compete there if she wins today.

"I'm aware of the situation, but depending on how I make out tomorrow, I intend to go to Sarajevo," she said.

Earlier, American athletes, acting on a warning from the US State department that the city was in a volatile state, indicated that they were pulling out of the meeting.

"Athletics is my life, but it's not worth my life," said sprinter Dennis Mitchell.

Michael Johnson is also likely to follow suit, while Britain's Jonathan Edwards cited a prior engagement as the reason for his withdrawal from the meeting.

The uncertainty of law and order in Sarajevo is not the only problem clouding O'Sullivan's horizon, as she prepares for the biggest test of her long awaited comeback.

After three years of non stop success on the Grand Prix circuit, she arrives in the final of the 5,000 metres event today with the scars of Atlanta still not fully healed.

And not until she has encountered some of the biggest names in middle distance running, can she be certain that four weeks of deep analysis has cleansed the hurt of her collapse in the Olympic 1,500 and 5,000 metres.

In the intervening period, she has run just once, winning a relatively low key 3,000m event in last Sunday's Permit Meeting in Riete, Italy, in a time of 8 minutes, 50.14 seconds.

There are those who have counselled against her return to action at this stage, and they include some of those with whom she trains at her base in London.

Training sessions have not, it seems, gone either as smoothly or as quickly as normal, causing renewed doubts if she can rediscover the form which made her invincible for so long.

So what has induced her to risk reputation and perhaps, health, in Milan? One reason is money and the need to recoup some of the income lost in the wake of her Atlanta mishaps.

She has a chance, if only an outside one, of winning the overall prize of £120,000 as the outstanding woman of the Grand Prix series.

More realistically, perhaps, she will collect a sum in the region of £32,000 if she wins today's race, which with the notable exception of Junxia Wang, is representative of the best talent around.

The prize money, however, is scarcely the only motivating factor as she makes ready to go to the start line.

"I need to run and to win to prove that what happened there was just one of those things", she said.

"Nobody was more disappointed with my Olympic performances than myself - and only I can put it right - at least in part.

"Compared to some of the other athletes, I have been lightly raced since Atlanta and hopefully, that's going to work to my advantage now."

Fortunately, Wang with that oriental facility for disappearing from competition once the major championships have been decided, will not be in the line up this afternoon.

For all the protestations to the contrary, there is a school of thought which suggests that the Chinese woman casts an inhibiting shadow on O'Sullivan after beating her in the World Championships in Stuttgart and again, more critically, in the Olympic 5,000m final.

Winning apart, there is an impressive array of talent in the line up, including Gabriela Szabo, the young Romanian, whose slight figure covers an enormous running talent.

As yet, it hasn't been effected by championship fulfilment, a point graphically illustrated in her failure to see out the last 800 metres of the Olympic final.

Pauline Konga, the silver medallist behind Wang in Atlanta, was, like her Kenyan team mate, Sally Barsosio, strung out in the pursuit when O'Sullivan opened up all the taps over the last 200m in Riete. But that race was over 3000m, a distance at which neither Kenyan is particularly comfortable.

Geta Wami of Ethiopia, third in the Olympic 10,000m championship is also in the field; but the biggest danger by far is the emerging Italian, Roberta Brunet, who ran so well to take the bronze medal in the Olympics.

Brunet has produced a remarkable rate of development this season and now, running on home terrain will almost certainly, mount a significant challenge.

Then there is Katherina McKiernan, another in search of a return to old glories, on her recovery from the injury problems which fragmented her season in 1995.

McKiernan produced two solid performances in the 10,000m in Atlanta without ever threatening to break into the medals category. That will have given her back some of her old self assurance; but scarcely enough to survive in this company.

Yet in many respects the star of the cast is Fernanda Ribero of Portugal, whose remarkable late charge to win the 10,000m title ranked high on the list of outstanding performances in Atlanta.

Ribero, the world 5,000m record holder has run only sparingly at the distance this season; but at her best, she is capable of searching out any flaws in O'Sullivan's current make up.