Gareth Turnbull had groin and hip injuries over the winter

Turnbull finished fifth in 3:40.60 which was a very promising effort considering the amount of training he missed over the winter.

"It was basically a very solid effort that should bring me on lot," Turnbull told the BBC.

Turnbull, who was behind winner Laban Rotich, runs in Oregon next weekend.

"I was dead last at 800m in 1.58 then got to the bell in 2.42 and the time was actually a quicker opener this year than last year's debut at Wythenshawe.

"I'll be looking forward to nicking off a second or so next week at the Adidas Classic in Portland and then getting down to some speed work in June."

Kenyan star Rotich won in 3:36.37 while American Charlie Gruber (3:38.42), another Kenyan Boaz Cheboiywo (3:38.47) and Australia's Mark Fountain (3:39.18) were also ahead of the Irishman.

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

The Belfast athlete's training partner Mark Carroll, meanwhile, produced a fine run over 5000m at Stanford to achieve the Olympic qualifying time.

Carroll's run of 13:18.75 which left him second behind Kenya's Joseph Kosgei (13:16.83), was his fastest 5000m in over three years.

Paul Brizzel competes for an Irish team in Loughborough on Sunday

The Corkman is aiming to run the 10,000m in Athens but he still has to achieve the qualifying time for the longer track distance.

Carroll has achieved the marathon qualifying time but after a disappointing outing in London in April, he abandoned plans to the 26 mile distance in the Greek capital.

Also in the US, Marie Davenport narrowly missed the Olympic Games 5,000m standard.

The Clare woman's personal best of 15:09.07 was .33 outside the Athens standard.

However, McMahon has already achieved the Olympic 10,000m mark so she seems certain to compete in Greece.

Meanwhile, Northern Ireland javelin thrower Michael Allen won his event at the Inter-Counties Championship at Bedford on Monday with a mark of 72.02m.

Allen is among a number of Northern Ireland athletes who have been picked on the Irish team for Sunday's Loughborough International.

Paul Brizzel will begin his countdown towards his 200m challenge in Athens by running over 100m at Loughborough, Vicki Jamison is selected for the 400m hurdles while Anna Boyle gets a relay berth.