Sonia O'Sullivan yesterday marked the start of her competitive programme in Olympic year with a 1,500 metres success at a meeting in Melbourne.

Running on the track for the first time since giving birth to her daughter Ciara last June, O'Sullivan took charge of the race in the closing stages to move away from her closest pursuer, Kate Anderson of Australia.

By her own standards, the time of four minutes 22.1 seconds, some 2.2 seconds faster than the Commonwealth 5,000 metres champion in second place, was not overly ambitious.

Yet she confessed to being well satisfied with her performance. "It was good to be back in competition again," she said. "That was the real value of the exercise, but it was also reassuring to feel so comfortable over the last lap."

Tomorrow O'Sullivan plans to act as pacemaker for her Australian training partner, Kyran McCann, in a 5,000 metres race, also in Melbourne, and she may have another 5,000 metres race later in the week.