O'Sullivan is adamant that favourite Radcliffe won't have it all her own way

THE world of women's middle distance running may be buzzing in advance of the showdown between defending champion Sonia O'Sullivan and Paula Radcliffe in tonight's 10,000m final in Munich, but the newly crowned Commonwealth Games champion played it down yesterday.

She insisted that the 1996 Olympic champion Fernando Ribeiro could be a bigger threat than the Irish woman. Radcliffe has good reason to respect Ribeiro after the Sydney Olympics when she came through to snatch the bronze medal after the Africans had claimed the first two in a spectacular finish to a sensational race, with Sonia O'Sullivan running a new Irish record at 30:53.37 back in sixth place.

Two years earlier Sonia O'Sullivan beat Ribeiro, then the Olympic champion and the red hot favourite, for the European title in Budapest.