Yamauchi to concentrate on Olympics

(GETTY IMAGES)

Mara Yamauchi will concentrate on chasing a qualifying time for the 2012 London Olympics later this year instead of going for gold at the European Championships in Barcelona in July. Following her 10th-placed finish, Yamauchi plans to spend the summer getting back into peak shape in readiness for an autumn marathon – anticipating that the Olympic qualifying window will open in October, something which has yet to be confirmed.

It means she will miss the major championships of the summer for the second successive year. In 2009 she was second in the world but missed the World Championships because of two foot injuries.

Andrew Lemoncello, eighth in the men's race, said after crossing the line on his marathon debut on Sunday that he intended to contest the 10,000 metres rather than the marathon at the European Championships. The Scot, however, has since changed his mind and will run for Britain in the 26.2 mile event.

It was not a marathon but a sprint for Usain Bolt at the weekend. Running on the anchor leg for a Jamaican quartet in the 4x100m relay at the Penn Relays in Philadelphia, he was clocked at 8.79sec (with the benefit of a rolling start) – encouraging preparation for the new IAAF Diamond League series from which Dwain Chambers is barred because of his doping past. The Briton has been invited to a second-tier IAAF World Challenge meeting in Rio on 23 May.