Gareth Turnbull is still chasing the Olympic qualifying time

Turnbull, still chasing the time needed to clinch his place in the 1500 metres, said the deadline was too early.

The Olympic Council of Ireland recently extended the cut-off date for track and field athletes to 20 July but it had originally been 30 June.

Turnbull said the original deadline had caused problems.

"I would not say that it was fair having the deadline so early in the summer because it encouraged atheltes to be at their fittest and quickest two months before the Olympic Games," said Turnbull.

"The official deadline for all the countries is 9 August which makes sense because if you run a good time at the start of August you have only two weeks to wait until you are actually at the Olympics."

Turnbull ran a season's best of 3:39.84 when finishing in eighth place in the 1500 metres at the Zagreb Grand Prix on 29 June.

But that was still short of the Olympic qualifying mark of 3:36.20.