Sonia O'Sullivan's erratic preparation for the Olympic Games was back on track after her best performance of the season in last evening's Weltklasse at Zurich.

Just six days after her threadbare run at Crystal Palace, O'Sullivan lived up to her reputation as one of the great unpredictables of modern athletics by finishing an impressive second to Gabriela Szabo of Romania in the 3,000 metres.

Szabo's time of eight minutes 26.36 seconds improved by six seconds the best for the distance this season, with the Irish woman just a couple of metres adrift in 8:27.58.

It was a race which held a capacity crowd captive from the start, and the quality was indicated in the fact that three of the athletes who finished behind the top two set national records. With 150 metres to go it looked as if the result would be better still for O'Sullivan after she had burst into the lead going down the back straight. But Szabo was tracking her all the way, and an injection of pace took her clear at the entrance to the finishing straight. O'Sullivan confessed that she was so frustrated with her display in London that at one stage she had considered withdrawing from the Zurich meeting. "There was a point, I think, where I decided it would be better not to run here, but I woke up at four o'clock one morning arguing with myself that I should go. That decided it, and now I'm glad I did. "Tonight it was all is on the line for me. I felt I had to do well - and I did. I was a lot more positive in my head and was able to think clearly throughout the race.

"This was my fastest 3,000 metres run in a couple of years and when you think of where I was at in London last Saturday that's fantastic."

It was not such a good evening for Regina Jacobs. Fresh from her double win in the American trials, she arrived in Europe in the hope of maintaining an impressive sequence of victories.

After showing with a chance with three laps to go, she quickly receded back through the field, however, to finish a long way off the pace in 15th place in 8:50.12. Britain's Paula Radcliffe, who had had finished 180 metres in front of O'Sullivan at Crystal Palace, again ran well, and approaching the bell was showing the way ahead of Szabo, Tegla Loroupe and the German Irina Mikitenko.

O'Sullivan at that point was running close to the kerb, but she managed to extricate herself quickly enough to go in pursuit down the back straight. Soon Radcliffe capitulated, but even as the Irish athlete took the lead Szabo was at her shoulder. No less than O'Sullivan, the world champion had suffered at Crystal Palace, but, revitalised, she was as decisive as ever after moving up a gear.

Radcliffe, who had performed with typical courage, was pipped on the line for third place by Spain's Maria Dominguez.