Athletics/Cork City Sports: In a way the Cork City Sports are the only thing still consistent in Sonia O'Sullivan's career. Ever since she first flaunted that great talent here as a 17-year-old, O'Sullivan has never run badly on her home ground. Now, more than ever, Cork helps keep her confidence intact, the last outpost of certainty along her long and winding roads to glory, writes Ian O'Riordan.

Take Saturday's victory in the 5,000 metres. Just six days after the leaden run in Gateshead, the dial that is measuring her form in the countdown to the Athens Olympics shifted away from red. It wasn't a gold-rush performance, but it certainly keeps the dream alive.

What is now clear is that we won't be convinced of O'Sullivan's true Olympic prospects until the Games themselves. From here she goes to Madrid for some training and some heat, taking in a 3,000-metre race on Saturday week. She'll probably run the Zurich Golden League on August 6th, but we're unlikely to see her in another world-class 5,000 metres before Athens.

But that dial will have to keep rising if she is to be a medal contender on the night of August 23rd.

Cork, she later explained, was treated like an Olympic qualifying heat: doing enough on the day but testing areas that will matter when things count. Like running her last lap in 65.7 seconds, and the last 200 metres in a fraction over 30 seconds.

"Well, I came here very relaxed," she said, "and that's when I run my best. So I just have to bring that with me now wherever I go from here, and treat things like a hard training run. But a lot of it is just about passing the time now. I don't really need to get much fitter. It's just about sharpening up a little."

The silver medallist from Sydney controlled things throughout. Alena Samokhvalova of Russian pressed the pace from before halfway, but with four laps remaining O'Sullivan surged ahead. The Russian chased in vain, finishing 18 seconds down. Yet O'Sullivan still finished with real conviction, and her time of 15:15.95 was comforting under the unseasonable conditions.

"I was a bit surprised to see the Russian going so fast," she added. "But I felt very relaxed, and decided I'd pass her and see what happens. I had decided to run that last 200 metres as fast as I could. And today was partly about reminding myself it was still there, because I haven't been practising it too much.

"And that's what I do need to work on over the next few weeks. But I definitely feel the speed is still there. That wasn't the fastest yet, but it's getting there."

It's just over six weeks now before O'Sullivan wants to hit that peak in Athens, but she's being careful not simply to repeat the final countdown to Sydney. And it's worth recalling that four years ago her form was equally zigzagging.

"The training I've been doing is similar. But you try not to compare too much, because circumstances change, and it's very difficult to try to repeat what you did before."

It's also good to see O'Sullivan's running partners running well, which indicates a positive mindset in the Nic Bideau training camp. And Craig Mottram looked superb in the 1,500 metres, especially the way he took off over the last 300 metres, winning in 3:41.60. Colin Costello, still a junior, was in front at the bell and finished best of the Irish, seventh, in 3:46.52.

Earlier there was a beautifully timed run by Freda Davoren in the 1,500 metres. The Kerrywoman ran bravely and deserved her win, in 4:13.43. But she only just held off the fast-finishing Rene Kalmer of South Africa. Sinéad Delahunty looked her old self in fifth (4:14.25).

There was a true international feel to the men's 800 metres, and the hope too that James Nolan could bring another home victory. The tactics didn't help, but a class apart anyway was Glody Dube of Botswana, seventh in Sydney, who clocked 1:48.66.

Nolan looked a little strained to run 1:50 for seventh, but he was using the race to prepare for a fast 1,500 metres in Lausanne tomorrow.

"To be honest, that my hamstring didn't tear is the only good thing out of that," he said. "It's been causing big problems in the last few weeks. If I can just get rid of that pain I'll be fine."

Adrian O'Dwyer as usual entertained the crowd in the high jump, clearing 2.21 metres before progressing to attempt 2.31 - which would have improved his recent Irish record. For now though that was a leap too high.