Paris, France - special to Irish Runner.com by Dave Mervyn
Atlanta-based Karen Shinkins believes she still has yet to run her fastest 400m heading into this morning's heats at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis.

The Paul Doyle-coached athlete, who ran her PB and national record (51.07) over four years ago, will turn 27 in October and although her season's best of 52.48 ranks her seventh of eight in her heat, we could be about to see a big performance from the Dublin City Harrier.

My training has been going fine and I know what I'll have to do to qualify from the first heat.

I have Ana Guevara of Mexico and Mireille Nguimgo sandwiching me in lane six but I think they'll respect me as much as I'll respect them. This is my third World Championships and I hope to do well and make the semi-finals,' she said.

'I'm feeling good and know there are faster times in me. It's not a case of me turning 27 and turning into a mature athlete running ever-slower times. I've progressed over the years. I feel maybe that I have had too many disappointments at majors and with the Worlds and Olympics next year, I need to be running big races and regularly hitting marks under 52.'

To progress this morning Shinkins will need to run something in the region of her 2001 form in Edmonton when she clocked 51.37 in the first round. Three automatically qualify and with Guevara in her heat, she could possibly hope to be one of the nine fastest losers over the course of the five heats.