Yamauchi in fine form on return

Mara Yamauchi returned to the marathon after a gap of 17 months with an encouraging third place in the Yokohama event in Japan yesterday. The 38-year-old Oxford woman clocked 2hr 27min 24sec behind the Japanese pair of Ryoko Kizaki and Yoshimi Ozaki.

She finished comfortably inside the British Olympic selection standard of 2hr 31min and moved to second in the UK rankings for the 26.2-mile event – behind Paula Radcliffe (2:23:12) but ahead of Jo Pavey (2:28:24).

Yamauchi has been dogged by injuries since finishing sixth in the 2008 Olympic marathon and runner-up to Germany's Irina Mikitenko in the 2009 London Marathon.