Gareth Turnbull had groin and hip injuries over the winter

Separate groin and hip injuries meant that Turnbull was able to train for only three weeks between December and late February.

Following successful treatment in New York, 1500m Athens hopeful Turnbull resumed training seven weeks ago.

"Things have been going well since then which I hope will continue," he said.

He returned to his Loughborough base last week after training with Mark Carroll in Florida for the previous five weeks.

Turnbull acknowledges that he has little hope of getting the Olympic qualifying time before the Cork City Sports on 3 July - which is the deadline imposed by the Olympic Council of Ireland.

However, the IAAF's international deadline extends for nearly a month after that and Turnbull, like many Irish athletes, will be banking on being given more time to reach the Athens target.

His personal best of 3:36.60, set last year, is .40 outside the Olympic mark.

Meanwhile, Turnbull's training partner Mark Carroll produced a disappointing performance in Sunday's Flora London Marathon.

Carroll was in the lead group for the opening eight miles but he then lost contact and eventually dropped out just after 16 miles.

The Corkman already has the qualifying time for the Olympic Marathon after running 2:10 in New York in 2002.

He is also hoping to qualify for the 10,000m in Athens.

Meanwhile, Mid-Ulster decathlete Paul Tohill bettered 7,000 points for the first time at a meeting in California last week.