Gareth Turnbull has been unable to run for three weeks

Gareth Turnbull's hopes of qualifying for the Olympics Games are being hindered by a virus which has prevented him from training for four weeks.

Turnbull has not run since clocking a disappointing 3 minutes and 44 seconds for 1500m in Loughborough last month.

"I'd felt shaky for a week, but it took the race to make me realise continuing to train was a waste of time," the Belfast athlete told BBC Sport.

Turnbull has been given no indication when he will be able to train again.

"There's no rationale as to how the virus got there, other than a bit of travel/immunisation vaccinations maybe affecting me more than others.

"To cut a long and let's face it, all-to-familiar story short, I'm just kicking my heels at the business end of the summer, hoping things will clear up soon.

"At the minute I've no real idea when that going to be."

Turnbull needs to run 3:36.60 this season to qualify for the Olympics.

His personal best, set in 2003, is exactly the same time as the Beijing standard.