Irish trio eye Olympic qualification

Mark Carroll leads a small Irish contingent aiming to achieve the Olympic qualifying standard in Sunday’s Flora London Marathon.

Carroll, who ran two hours 10 minutes and 54 seconds on his debut in New York 18 months ago, has been an absentee from international competition through injury since then.

But the Athens qualifier of two hours 15 minutes is well within his grasp while Martin McCarthy and Peter Matthews also possess the ability of reaching the standard.

Also making the trip will be Pauric McKinney, Cian McLaughlin, Gary Crossan and Paolo Doglio.