It was O'Sullivan's first race of 2004

Running in her first race of the year, O'Sullivan trailed in more than half a minute behind Catrina McKiernan.

Irishwoman McKiernan won the 10km race in a time of 33 minutes and 39 seconds, with Romania's Elana Fadeeva second.

"I felt fine but at this stage of my training I wasn't really prepared for racing over 10km," said O'Sullivan who is focusing on the Olympics in August.

"I didn't really want to get too involved in the race, this was more of a training run than anything else.

"Next week is when the Olympic preparations and really hard work will start."

O'Sullivan will to fly to the United States on Sunday for a month's altitude training.

Australia's Craig Mottram successfully defended his men's title, winning in a time of 29:11.

He finished 50 seconds ahead of Portugal's Victor Almeida who in turn had three seconds to spare on Northern Ireland's Andy Graffin.

Women: 1 C McKiernan (Irl) 33.39
2 E Sadeeva (Ukr) 33.50
3 A Rosa (Por) 34.02
4 S O'Sullivan (Irl) 34.16
5 J Bryne (Irl) 34.48