Susan Smith, the national record holder for the 400 metres hurdles, is the highest-placed Irish athlete in the European rankings for the year just ended.

On the basis of performances in 1997, the Waterford woman, a finalist in the world championships in Athens last season, will be one of the prime contenders for a medal in the European Championships in Budapest next August.

Last year, only the Ukrainian Tatyana Tereshchuk (53.64 seconds) and Britain's former Olympic champion Sally Gunnell (54.53 seconds) recorded faster times than Smith's best of 54.61 seconds. And with Gunnell now retired from big-time competition, that effectively puts the Irish woman in number two position in the approach to the big Budapest meeting.

Sonia O'Sullivan's sharp rate of decline is vividly illustrated in the ratings list issued by the European Amateur Athletics Federation. From a position in which she dominated the 1,500 and 5,000 metres events almost totally, she has now slipped to ninth place at both distances.

Her best 1,500 metres time of four minutes 05.31 seconds last year was more than seven seconds slower than Kelly Holmes's 3:58.07, while figures of 15:10.98 in the 5,000 metres left her a stunning 28 seconds slower than the talented Romanian athlete Gabriela Szabo.

Catherina McKiernan, who opted out of major track competition last summer, is interested to see some familiar names emerge at the head of the 10,000 metres in her absence. The list is led by Julia Vaquero (Spain), Silvia Sommaggio (Italy) and Portugal's Fernanda Ribeiro.

With Nick Sweeney another injury victim last year, the only Irish athlete to make the men's list is Mark Carroll. The Cork man, with a best time of 13 minutes 14.08 seconds in 1997, is ranked sixth in the 5,000 metres event. The naturalised Dane Wilson Kipketer, whose remarkable development has enabled him to break the world 800 metres record on five occasions, tops the men's rankings.

World champion shot putter Astrid Kumbermuss heads the women's ratings.