Ryan in another bid for Athens

SPRINTER Gary Ryan will take his quest for an Olympic qualifying standard to tonight’s Grand Prix meeting in Thessalonika after again finishing outside the A standard of 20.59 secs in Saturday night’s 200m race in Madrid.

He finished sixth in 20.80 secs.

The race was won by Francisco Bikwolu of Portugal in 20.29 secs.

There was a disappointing run by Sonia O’Sullivan at the same meet. She could only manage 12th place in the women’s 3,000m in a modest time of 9:12.87. The race was won by Isabella Onchichiken of Kenya in 8:37.68 from Lydia Chojecka of Poland, 8:42.62 with Australia’s Sara Jamieson third in 8:49.46.

Another Irish international, Una English, finished 15th in 9:18.59.

Ireland’s Paul Hession won over 200m at the Leon Buyle Memorial meeting in Belgium on Saturday clocking 20.88s to beat Dutch sprinter Guus Hoogmoed into 2nd on 20.93s.