Elvan Abeylegesse of Turkey, the world record holder in the 5000 meters, tops the entries for this weekend's 10th edition of the European Cup 10,000m in Antalya, Turkey.

Saturday's competition will be the first for the 23-year-old Turk since her double victory at European Cup Second League match in Istanbul, Turkey, last June. For the past ten months, The Ethiopian-born Abeylegesse has been sidelined while receiving treatment for kidney stones.

"I am fit and healthy now and I am eager to be back in the arena after 10 months out," Abeylegese said in a press release. "This will be only the second 10,000m race in my career and I ran the previous one five years ago. So I am set to discover myself and am curious to see how good I can be at the distance."

Her only outing over the distance came at the 2001 Mediterranean Games where she finished third in 32:29.20, a national and national junior record. At the Bislett Games in Bergen, Norway, in 2004, Abeylegesse produced a stunning 14:24.68 performance in the 5000, eclipsing Bo Jiang's 1997 record by more than three seconds.

"My first aim is of course winning this competition, but a world record holder cannot set low profile targets. If it is not too windy during the race and if the race is not too crowded, I would love to run a fast time, a real fast one." Paula Radcliffe of Great Britain set the Cup record of 30:40.70 in 1999.

Other entries include Analia Rosa of Portugal, who was eighth in the 3000 meters at last month's World Indoor Championships; European Under-23 champion Krisztina Papp of Hungary; and Yamna Oubohou of France and Slovenia's Helena Javornik, the 2001 and 2002 European cross country champions. Javornik, who recently celebrated her 40th birthday, was runner-up at last weekend's Rotterdam Marathon in 2:29:37.

Athletes from France, Spain and Portugal are the top entries in the men's race. Ismael Sgyhr of France, is the quickest in the field, with a 27:12.39 personal best. The Spanish squad is led by Ricardo Serrano, who was third in the competition last year in 28:19.20.

Portuguese women have won the team title in seven of the nine competitions, while Spanish men have claimed five team and six individual titles.

This 10,000m competition was created by the European Athletics Federation to provide a quality early-season race in an event where few competitive possibilities exist. Most athletes will be gunning for qualifying performances for August's European Championships: 28:50.00 for men and 33:20.00 for women. As in recent years, pace setters will be provided.