Hession eyes Olympic final after performance in London

Paul Hession gave notice that he is a serious contender for a place in the Olympic final by running a season's best time (20.37 seconds) in this afternoon's world class 200 metres race at the Aviva London Grand Prix.

The Athenry man, in his last outing before Beijing, finished strongly to secure third place behind American's Wallace Spearmon (20.27) and runaway winner Usain Bolt of Jamaica (19.76).

The 21-year-old Bolt, who recently set a new 100m world record, was a class apart as he galloped home in lane four to claim a new British all-comers' record.

Hession's achievement in finishing third was superb, given that he was running out of lane eight into a headwind of 0.4 metres per second and that the race line-up included four men who have run under 20 seconds in their lives.

In finishing third, the multi-Irish record holder claimed the scalps of Zimbabwe's Brian Dzingai, whom he brilliantly chased down in the final 20 metres, British number one Christian Malcolm and highly rated American Rodney Martin.

Hession looks primed to beat or at least challenge his 200m record of 20.30 in Beijing and he should go to the Games as the fastest European in 2008.

This Crystal Palace run has him top of the European list, ahead of Portugal's Francis Obikwelu (20.46) and Frenchman Eddy De Lepine (20.47). His previous best this year of 20.48 was set in Oslo last month.