BOLTON will have two athletes running for England at the Commonwealth Games at Delhi in October after Tom Lancashire and Stuart Stokes were named in the team.

Lancashire, the 25-year-old Bolton middle distance star will line up in the 1500m along with Andy Baddeley and Colin McCourt, the same trio who reached the final at the European Games at the end of last month.

But it is an amazing turnaround in fortunes for 3000m steeplechaser Stokes, who now lives in Horwich.

He quit the sport after he failed to gain selection for the 2008 Olympic GB team despite having the qualifying time. Disillusioned with the sport he stayed away from the track but took part in the Ironman UK event in Bolton last year.

Despite hardly any training, he returned to the track this summer and and gained the qualifying time in both his races.

Lancashire, who has been in impressive form since finishing a disappointing 10th in Barcelona, put his name down to compete in the 800m at the Commonwealths instead of the 1500m at which he has represented Great Britain at the Olympic Games and World and European Championships in the last two years.

His request was rejected, however, despite him being the second fastest English 800m runner this year, and he was placed in the 1500m team by the England selectors.

Meanwhile, the Bromley Cross man is desperate to break his 1500m personal best of 3mins 34.29secs in the final Diamond League meeting of the season in Brussels on Friday night, which will be televised live on BBC3.

He missed out by just three tenths of a second in an impressive run in Berlin on Sunday when he beat a Germany's Carsten Schlangen who took the silver medal at the European Championships.

He also beat British number one Baddeley over a mile at the recent Crystal Palace Diamond League meeting when he shattered his personal best, and he is preparing for a busy period leading up to the Commonwealths.

"I feel fresh and strong and Brussels will give me another chance to break my personal best," he said.

"Then I go straight to Rieti for another 1500m on Sunday, and I plan to run two 800m races."