South African champion Hezekiel Sepeng and world indoor champion Mbulaeni Mulaudzi ? both Olympic medal contenders ? get together in the 800 metres on Friday night in Zurich for the first time on European soil this year to feel out their opposition for the two-lap showpiece in Athens. Except for the odd niggle and running nose, there are only glowing reports at the Pretoria University training camp as the South African Olympic team undergo final preparations for their departure to Athens on Tuesday.

There is lively interest in the build-up of South Africa's two 800 metre dynamos in the Weltklasse meeting at Zurich, which will provide a fairly accurate indicator of form in the run up to the Olympics, especially after Mulaudzi's third-place in one minute 45.90 seconds at Crystal Palace in London last Friday night, where he beat Algerian world champion Djabir Said Guerni.

Mulaudzi, a terrier-like fighter in a race, is sharpening up after recovering from glandular fever and a foot injury that kept him out of most of the European circuit, and he is itching for a return of his strong finish after losing the national title to Sepeng in Durban in March.

"Both of them are on a tightrope to peak at the right time for the Olympics," said South Africa's track and field manager Wilfred Daniels after the Olympic Day 10 kilometre fun run at Tukkies on Sunday. "These are exciting times for the team, and I've never felt the spirit so positive in my years of involvement with the track and field athletes."

Daniels said that chances are they will come up against other Olympic medal contenders in Yuriy Borzakovskiy and Wilson Kipketer.

Llewellyn Herbert, the bronze medal winner in the 400 hurdles at the Sydney Olympics, said that he was well on the way to recovery from a recent bout of sickness that saw him fall back from second fastest in the world this year behind Felix Sanchez, to stone last at a meeting in Paris St. Denis a fortinight ago.

"I'll travel to Athens with the Olympic team on Tuesday, then I move on to Zurich,"said Herbert. "I've also had to get over a touch of flu, but I'm feeling strong. My health is returning, and that's the important thing."

Sepeng, Mulaudzi, Herbert, world high jump champion Hestrie Cloete and Frantz Kruger, the bronze medal winner in the discus at the Sydney Olympics, will be in action at the Zurich meeting.

Daniels also had good news about the recover rates from injury of pole-vaulter Okkert Brits, 400 metre hurdler Alwyn Myburgh and men's world high jump champion Jacques Freitag.

"Okkert was training on the runway here in Pretoria and he was showing good form," said Daniels of the mercurial Commonwealth Games champion, who had a recent setback with a hamstring problem.

"He underwent a strenuous fitness test under the supervision of the medical team, and they report that he is at least six days ahead of his anticipated recovery rate. He has returned to Stellenbosch with his coach Jopie Loots."

Brits was given special permission by Nocsa to remain in Stellenbosch, where he is under the watchful eye of a medical team, so he need not leave on Tuesday night, and has been given leave until August 12 to join the team in Athens.

Freitag continues to train free of pain after recovering from an ankle injury that threatened to sideline him from the Olympics. "He is clearing 2.29 metres in training with ease, so he's spot on target for where he wants to be by the time he competes in Athens," said Daniels.

Myburgh, who suffered an ebow injury during a fall, has also fully recovered and showing his best form in training this year. "He did six sets of 300 metre flats during last week with an average of 32 seconds each," said Daniels. "The camp is impressed."