Sonia O'Sullivan's yelp of joy told the straining media scrum what winning a medal on home turf meant.

With tape recorders hanging on the Cobh star's every word, an Irish official briefly butted in to whisper that her amazing seventh place had helped the host nation to an unlikely team bronze.

"We're third. Fantastic. I've done the job now," said the home heroine.

The task involved getting Ireland onto the podium in the women's short course event 12 weeks and three days after giving birth to her second child Sophie.

The very notion of the 32-year-old being competitive at Leopardstown seemed ludicrous to many.

Even her coach Alan Storey was sceptical about the athlete's chances of being anywhere near the front.

But O'Sullivan's strength and, occasionally her weakness, is a competitive streak which makes her attempt the seemingly impossible.

On the good days, such as her double win at the World Cross Country Championships in 1998, this zeal rewrites the record books.

On other occasions, such as last year's World Indoors in Lisbon when she attempted to finals within 45 minutes of one another, it can go horribly wrong.

But O'Sullivan is never scarred by such experiences.

Enjoyment

Spurred on by a vocal home crowd estimated at around 10,000, O'Sullivan even entertained thoughts of victory as she strode mightily around the first lap.

She said: "It was really easy early on and I was thinking 'Hey I can win this'.

"But three months training is not enough to do that middle bit of the race and that's where they got away.

"I was enjoying it out there. Maybe when you're away from competition for a bit you do tend to enjoy your running and maybe dig in that little bit more.

"Alan hasn't allowed me to hurt myself too much in training but I'll be starting from now on."

"I knew that Anne was fairly close behind me because I could hear the crowd cheering for her."

Little more than 15 minutes after the race, Sonia was already talking excitedly about the summer track season when the European Championships in Munich will be her main target.

Four years ago, she claimed the 5000m/10,000m double in Budapest.

"The foundation is great now for the summer. I think I ran much better than when I finished seventh in Portugal in 2000 which was the year after I had Ciara," she said.

"I knew the sooner I started big-time competition the better. The further you are away from it the harder it is to actually get out there.

"It was fantastic having all the Irish officials there at the finish. It could have been an East Cork cross country race."