Merrien looking to kick on ahead of Rio bid

Guernsey runner Merrien finished 30th in London three years ago but has found his chances hindered by injury since then.

He was absent for almost a year of racing due to a stress fracture in his back and missed the 2014 Commonwealth Games as a result.

His first half marathon in over 12 months came when he won silver at this summer's Island games while last weekend he completed his first 26-mile race since London when he took part in the Berlin Marathon.

The 36-year-old clocked a time of two hours, 15 minutes, 30 seconds for 26th place although he will need to run under 2:14:00 to be in contention for Rio – something he believes is within his grasp.

"I think I'm in shape to run faster than 2:15:30 gave me credit for," Merrien told BBC Radio Guernsey.

"But having had the last six months of reasonable training, having had two years on and off of very interrupted training, I can now start my next six months when I'll tackle another marathon with a much better starting point so I can build on that fitness.

"There's a lot of people out there, people always spring out of the woodwork in terms of the Olympics as it's only once every four years.

"The obvious people are the likes of Scott Overall, who's already got the time and is likely to be going and there's one or two others that are very good marathon runners too who'll be pushing to try to get the qualifying standard.

"But I can only focus on what I do and I'm just focussing on training hard to make that extra time up that I need and I believe I can get.

"If that gets me inside the qualifying time and I happen to be one of the three fastest people in the country then that will get me picked, so that's the goal really."

© Sportsbeat 2015