From talk of the future sprung word of a break. Sonia O'Sullivan crossed the line a tired second in yesterday's Women's Mini Marathon, and instead of looking forward to her next race, she started looking forward to a break.

It was expected that this race would be a final test of form before the summer track season, but when asked about the plan for the Edmonton World Championships and the Grand Prix circuit, O'Sullivan announced that there wasn't any.

Time for a rest and some rejuvenation, and her form around the 10km Dublin course told why. Kenya's Magdaline Chemjor skipped away from O'Sullivan in the opening metres and arrived home untested in 32 minutes, 56 seconds. O'Sullivan had chased without much fire and came second in 33:26 - two minutes slower than her own course record from last year's winning run.

Chemjor is a quality runner, discovered in Kenya by the famous Irish coach Brother O'Connell. Still only 23, she has already won the Dublin five-mile classic this year and was runner-up to O'Sullivan last year. But there was no way she would have been 25 metres clear after the opening kilometre had O'Sullivan been in her usual form, and on that sort of performance, there's no doubt that her call for a break is a wise one.

"I don't want to have another year like 1997, when you're running tired and you don't get anything out of it. The plan now is to start back serious in Australia next winter, and maybe go altitude training again in the spring."

Behind O'Sullivan, Valerie Vaughan ran encouragingly to take third in 34 minutes flat. Over 30,000 runners followed them all home.

There was impressive progression from Patrice Dockery in the wheelchair race. She improved her course record to 27:57, a significant drop on the 28:50 she clocked when winning last year.

Breda Dennehy-Willis achieved the A standard qualifying time for the World Championships in Edmonton next August when she clocked 15 minutes 15.49 seconds over 5,000 metres in Hengelo, Holland last night, in a race won by Ethiopia's Berhane Adere in 14:51.67.

But there was no luck for James Nolan over 1,500 metres when he finished in 3:40.95 for sixth place, well outside the desired 3:36.2. Victory there went to Bernard Langat of Kenya in 3:35.65.