FORMER Commonwealth Games marathon bronze medallist Mark Hudspith is hoping to break his Great North Run jinx tomorrow as he sets his sights on qualifying for next year's Olympic Games.

The 34-year-old Morpeth Harrier will be using the half-marathon as part of his build up towards next April's London Marathon, which will be used as the UK trial for Athens.

And after two years of disappointment through illness and injury he has his fingers crossed that better times lie ahead.

"The Great North Run has always been a race I've wanted to do well in, but I've been unlucky on two occasions," said Hudspith.

"Once I was going great until the eleven-mile mark when I was hit by breathing problems and the year before last my preparations had gone really well but I picked up a cold on the eve of the race and I couldn't make the start line.

"It hasn't been the luckiest of races for me but I'm hoping to put that behind me when I line up on Sunday."

Hudspith has also been dogged by bad luck in his last two major championships.

Two years ago a serious ankle injury forced him to withdraw from the World Championships in Canada, and last year he had to drop out of the Commonwealth Games marathon with breathing problems which have yet to be properly diagnosed.

But Hudspith proved his is back on the road to fitness with an emphatic victory in this month's Tynedale 10, when he beat former Northern cross country champion Andrew Caine and came close to challenging the course record.

Now he is determined to make a desperate, final bid to represent Great Britain in the Olympic Games marathon next summer, and he has decided to concentrate his efforts on winning selection in London next spring.

He said: "It is pretty much wide open - no-one has yet gained the qualifying time for Athens.

"I will run the London Marathon because that looks like being the selection race and hopefully my preparations will go well.

"I haven't set myself any target in the Great North Run - I'm just looking for a good, solid race."

Morpeth clubmate Terry Wall, after a series of local road-race victories, is hoping for his best performance in the Great North Run and will be looking to break 66 minutes.

The leading North-East contenders in the women's race will be Chester-le-Street's Kathryn Waugh, Denise Todd, of Jarrow and Hebburn, and 46-year-old former World Veterans double gold medallist Sheila Allen (Houghton and Peterlee).