Fionnuala Britton achieves London Olympics 10K standard

Fionnuala Britton looks set to compete in the 10,000m at this year's Olympics after achieving the qualifying mark for the distance over the weekend.

Britton had already qualified for the 3,000m steeplechase in London but is now expected to opt for the other event at the Games.

The Wicklow athlete was over 15 seconds inside the 10,000m standard as she clocked 31:29.22 in the US.

Britton was competing at the Payton Jordon Cardinal Invitational meeting.

The European Cross Country champion ran strongly throughout the race to claim third place, just ahead of Britain's Julie Bleasdale.

The performance lifted Britton to fourth on the Irish all-time list for the distance.

At the same meeting, Mullingar athlete Mark Christie was again under the European Championship 5,000m qualifying mark as he clocked 13:37.32 while Dundrum South Dublin's Brendan O'Neill was just outside the Helsinki standard as he crossed the line in 13:41.06.

Letterkenny athlete Darren McBrearty was seventh in the men's 1500m in 3:42.92 while Orla Drumm posted a time of 4:13.27 to finish sixth in the women's metric mile.

Meanwhile, Irish sprinter Steven Colvert improved his 100m personal best to 10.45 at the Steve Scott Invitational meeting in San Diego with Paul Hession clocking 10.59 in the same race.

Colvert was under 21 seconds in the 200m as he clocked 20.89 which again left him ahead of Hession who clocked 21.07.

Competing in England, Irish hammer thrower Dempsey McGuigan achieved a world junior championship qualifying mark when he improved his personal best to 70.02m.