Paula Radcliffe, Mara Yamauchi and Scott Overall secure 2012 places

Paula Radcliffe, Mara Yamauchi and Scott Overall have been selected as the first members of Great Britain's athletics team for London 2012.

Radcliffe, who finished 23rd in Beijing in 2008, has been picked for her fifth Olympic Games at the age of 37.

Yamauchi finished second in the 2009 London Marathon, while Overall made his debut at the distance in September.

They join 11 sailors and five boxers as those who have secured their places in Team GB for next summer's Games.

Radcliffe matches the achievement of heptathlete and javelin thrower Tessa Sanderson and race walker Chris Maddocks as the only track and field athletes to make the British team at five Olympics.

"To represent your country at a home Olympics is something special and I'm over the moon to be selected for Team GB," said Radcliffe.

Her time of two hours 23 minutes and 46 seconds in September's Berlin marathon was well inside UK Athletics' 'A' qualifying time of two hours and 31 minutes.

The race was only the world record holder's second since returning to the roads after the birth of her second child.

Yamauchi clocked two hours, 27 minutes and 24 seconds in November's Yokohama marathon to put herself in contention for selection.

Overall, who splits his time between south-west London and the United States, has made an immediate impact after stepping up from 5,000m.

The 28-year-old finished fifth on his marathon debut in Berlin in a time of two hours, 10 minutes and 55 seconds, more than a minute inside the men's 'A' qualifying time.

His place, along with Radcliffe and Yamauchi's, was assured when the British Olympic Association accepted UK Athletics' nomination of the trio at a meeting on Monday.

Other British marathon runners could join them at London 2012 after UK Athletics' second nomination process on 23 April.