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GREAT BRITAIN cross country international Ian Hudspith will stage a do-or-die bid to win Olympic Games selection in tomorrow's Flora London Marathon.

The 37-year-old Morpeth Harrier has concentrated his efforts on peaking for his second test over 26.2 miles - and he admits that it will be his last if he fails to earn a trip to Beijing.

He said: "The London Marathon has been my target for the past year and all my preparations have gone pretty well.

"I don't think I could have prepared better - and if I don't make the Olympics this could be my last ever marathon."

Ian and his elder brother Mark, the 1994 Commonwealth Games marathon bronze medallist, have been among the North-East's leading distance runners over the past two decades.

The Newcastle schoolteacher ran a personal-best 62 mins 53 secs in the Hague Half Marathon in 1996 and finished 23rd in the 1999 London Marathon in a time of 2 hours 15 mins 47 secs.

Ian decided to concentrate his efforts on the track and cross country and was rewarded with selection for the 2002 World Cross Country Championships in Dublin and the Commonwealth Games 10,000m in Manchester later the same year.

He realises he will have to clip more than four minutes off his pb if he is to achieve the UK Athletics Olympic A standard of 2:11. If he does he will have beaten his brother's best-ever time of 2:11:58.

He does not see any problems with a target of going through the halfway mark in about 65 mins 45 secs. But he adds: "The second half of the race will be quite unknown territory but hopefully my training over the past year will see me through.

"Whatever happens, I'm really looking forward to the race."

To achieve his Olympic dream Hudspith will have to stick with the group of leading British runners which includes Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Dan Robinson, ninth last year in 2:14:14, and Salford's Ethiopianborn Tomas Abyu, thirrd in January's Houston Marathon in a time of 2:13:45.

10:20am Saturday 12th April 2008

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