With eleven major championship medals firmly in her past, Cobh's Sonia O'Sullivan, at the age of 33, will make her first steps towards winning a glorious twelfth this week in Paris, in tonight's 5000m heats in the Stade de France.

It's been six years since the Alan Storey-coached athlete stepped onto the track for a World 5000m heat, in Athens. A further two years back, Gothenburg witnessed her claim gold over 5k. But much has changed for O'Sullivan and the middle distance world since then.

You only have to glance at the starting sheet for the second heat of the women's 5000m to see the differences and difficulties to be encountered by Ireland's most celebrated athlete. Berhane Adere heads the field with 2003 form of 14:29.32 calibre. On this season's showings O'Sullivan is unfavourably ranked eighth of the seventeen starters, with 15:06.19. A stuttering performance from O'Sullivan could see her crowded out of the top five, with Adere, Gabriela Szabo (14:41.35), Zhor El Kamch of Morocco (14:42.53), Russian Yelena Zadorozhnaya (14:51.61) and Germany's Irina Mikitenko, formerly of Kazakhstan (14:56.64) all showing form. When you throw in China's 19-year-old prodigy Huina Xing at 15 minutes, it all starts to get a little worrying.