O'Sullivan is adamant that favourite Radcliffe won't have it all her own way
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.
In fact Ribeiro had not been running well at all in the year leading up to the Olympics but set the place alight that night.
There is little doubt about the fact that Radcliffe is going to take a lot of beating tonight and she was just oozing confidence yesterday amid speculation that she could well become the second woman in history to break 30 minutes for 10,000m.
Wang Junxia of China holds the world record at 29:31.78.
She did not go so far as to say she will do it but she suggested that the European record which was set by the great Norwegian, Ingrid Kristiansen, at 30:13.74 some 16 years ago in Oslo was a very realistic target.
And, of Sonia O'Sullivan, she said: "I am not going out there to burn off anybody. I will run as I feel like I did in Manchester and it is not necessarily a matter of going out and getting rid of people. Like Manchester, I'll as I feel and I'll surge when I feel strong."
She said the race, as she saw it, was probably down to three herself, O'Sullivan and Ribeiro.
"I am looking at Sonia O'Sullivan and Ribeiro as the dangers and probably Ribeiro, if she is on form, as the bigger one," she said.
Ribeiro ran the sixth fastest time ever at 30:22.88 behind Derartu Tulu and Gete Wami in the 10,000m final in Sydney and she showed something of a return to her best form in Camaoire in April when she ran 31:40.80 behind Mihaela Botezan of Romania (31.:19.74) who goes into this evening's final with the fastest time of the year.
Also in there is the Russian Lyudmila Biktasheva, who holds the season's second fastest time at 31:23.15, 10 seconds faster than Sonia O'Sullivan's winning time in Manchester.
The excitement generated by Radcliffe has followed her to Munich and she revelled in it as Sonia O'Sullivan enjoyed the more peaceful surroundings of the Hilton Hotel with NickBideau and the children.
"Paula is favourite and she is entitled to be the favourite," Bideau said. "She has not run a bad race in about three years.
"But Sonia is a good runner and she has always run well in the European championships. In fact she has not lost a race in the European championships since Split in 1990. She is very fit right now and you don't know what will happen until the race gets under way.
"If you just went on people's reputations you would have given Tiger Woods the British Open trophy before he turned up. But that's not how it is. You have to go out there and win it."
And just to satisfy herself about whether or not she can cope with Radcliffe's early pace, O'Sullivan took part in a mixed 7,500m road race in Bushy Park a week ago and ran the first 5,000m in 14 mins 57 secs which would be close to world record pace had it been a 10,000m race on the track.
O'Sullivan said she had watched Paula Radcliffe in Manchester and did not feel in the least bit intimidated by what she saw.
"I was not at all intimidated," she said. "What it does it reinforces what I believe is possible. Since 1995 I have believed that I can do it and I am now more convinced. If other people can do it then so can I."
Radcliffe refused to commit herself to a double up in the 5,000m yesterday, saying that she would run the 10,000m and then start thinking about a possible double up when she wakes up the following morning.
And the news in the Athletes' Village last evening was that Gabriela Szabo, who will be fancied to dethrone Sonia O'Sullivan in the 5,000m, is to double up at 1,500m. This would mean she would have the heats of the 1,500m on Friday morning with the final of the 5,000m scheduled for Saturday afternoon.
Anne Keenan-Buckley will go to the line for tonight's 10,000m final as the oldest athlete in the field. At 40 she is one of the oldest athletes competitors here but she will not keep her from being involved in the action.
At world and European cross-country levels she has mixed it with the best and she has been getting better with age.
She already holds world and European gold medals and her last major championship appearance was when she represented Ireland in the 3,000m at the Seoul Olympics in 1988.
Marie McMahon Davenport competed at the Olympic Games in Atlanta, and while she has a had a distinguished collegiate career in the USA where she was a star performer for Ray Treacy at Providence College, she only won her first national senior track title over 1,500m this year.
She qualified for the Europeans at both 5,000m and 10,000m but opted for the longer distance and goes into the final as the eighth fastest in the field. She is one of a number of ex-Providence athletes in the Irish team alongside Mark Carroll, Maria McCambridge (5,000m) and Geraldine Hendricken (1,500).
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