Carroll on track

Athletics News: Exactly six weeks after dropping out of the London Marathon Mark Carroll achieved his more important goal of the season, and qualified for a track event at the Athens Olympics.

On Sunday night he ran 13:18.75 for 5,000 metres at the US Open Invitational, hosted by Stanford University in California, and that easily eclipsed the 13:21.50 needed to book his place. Kenyan Joseph Koskei won the race in 13:16.83.

Carroll had already achieved the qualifying standard in the marathon going back to New York in 2002 but after his rough experience in London, where he withdrew at 18 miles, his focus immediately shifted to the track.

Despite criticising the Olympic Council of Ireland for their early qualification deadlines, he has at least overcome the first hurdle, and can officially rule out the Olympic marathon.

Yet the 10,000 metres remains Carroll's preferred option for Athens and he'll chase down the 27:49.0 qualifier in the coming weeks.

Right now, however, Ireland have three athletes qualified for the 5,000 metres - with Alistair Cragg and Cathal Lombard achieving the time before Carroll. Lombard will definitely focus on the 10,000 metres having recently run an Irish record of 27:33.53.

The US Open meeting continues in Stanford later tonight when Gareth Turnbull will hope to run inside the 3:36.20 for 1,500 metres, which he needs to get to Athens.

For Marie Davenport, who is already Athens bound in the 10,000 metres, the quest to add the 5,000-metres option fell just short when she ran a personal best of 15:09.07 for fourth place at the Boston high-performance meeting. 15:08.70 was needed to add her name to both events.

Two of those athletes, Paul Brizzel in the 200 metres and Derval O'Rourke in the 100 metres hurdles, form part of an Irish selection that competes in Sunday's Loughborough International in England.

IRISH SELECTION (Loughborough International, June 6th): 100m: Paul Brizzel, Ailis McSweeney; 200m: Ciara Sheehy; 400m: Brian Murphy, Michelle Carey; 800m: Brendan O'Shea Aoife Byrne; 1,500m: Richard Corcoran, Roisin McGettigan; 3,000m steeplechase: Eugene O'Neill, Fionnuala Britton; 3,000m: Robert Connolly; 110m hurdles: Peter Coghlan, Derval O'Rourke; 400m Hurdles: Liam McDermid, Vicki Jamieson; Long Jump: Darragh O'Farrell, Antoinette Furlong; Triple Jump: Taneisha Robinson; High Jump: David Shiels, Deirdre Ryan; Hammer/Discus: Eileen O'Keeffe; Shot: Paul Crowe, Geraldine Stewart; Javelin: Michael Allen, Jennifer O'Sullivan; 4x100m Relay (men from): Paul Brizzel, Jer O'Donoghue, Liam McDermid, Tom Comyns, Alan Dunford; (Women from): Ailis McSweeney, Ciara Sheehy, Derval O'Rourke, Anna Boyle, Fiona O'Friel, Emily Maher.