TOM Lancashire's bid to make it to his second Olympic Games goes on after the Bolton athlete fell short of the qualification time in Oslo on Thursday night.

The 30-year-old 1500m runner, who was just 1.5secs off the time required to go to Rio with his fastest run for six years on Sunday, was further adrift of the standard on Thursday night.

He had his work cut out, in truth, as the race was a slow affair in which none of the 17 runners eclipsed the 3mins 36.2secs needed to give them a chance of going to the Olympics.

The Bolton Harrier clocked 3mins 41.46secs in his third high-profile race of the summer at the Bislett Games meeting where the main event for middle distance runners was the Dream Mile.

That meant a lower standard of opposition for the Bromley Cross man to run against – and hopefully pull him to the time he desperately wants to make him a double Olympian after going to the 2008 Games in Beijing.

Lancashire has returned to close to his top form of 2010 when he set his personal best, dipping under 3:34 which made him Britain's number one and the 12th fastest Brit ever.

Back among the leaders in the British 1500m rankings, he still has a realistic chance of making it to Rio as the deadline to get the qualification time is July 11 and his return to form is likely to get him into fast races.