DERRY man Gregory Roberts carries northern hopes in Sunday's Virgin London Marathon. Roberts (right) has been in impressive form this spring and the 32-year-old feels he is getting back to his form of 2010, when he took the bronze medal in the Irish Championship at the distance in a personal best 2:21:18.
Roberts was fourth in a quality Omagh Half Marathon at the end of last month in 68 minutes and four seconds, having finished second in the Inishowen Half Marathon just six days earlier. His time of 69:23 on the tough Inishowen course around the Buncrana area was probably worth better than the Omagh clocking.
His plans for a fast half marathon in England were thwarted in February when he suffered a cold immediately before Wokingham which also turned out to be a wet and windy day.
Although the University of Ulster graduate would be happy with a new personal best , he does not deny that he has thoughts of a qualifying time of 2:17 for next year's Olympic marathon in Rio de Janeiro. He is reluctant to say outright what he thinks he is capable of in London.
"I don't want to say because I might just jinx myself, if you know what I mean, but definitely sub 2:20 anyway," he said.
"We did have an eye on it [the Olympic standard] but I don't think I'll get it on Sunday but if needs be I'll probably have another attempt on it in the autumn," revealed Roberts.
Sunday's race also marks the swansong of Britain's Paula Radcliffe who is retiring after the race. The 41-year-old has won London three times and set a world record of 2:15:25 there in 2003.
Unfortunately, the Bedford athlete has had a troubled preparation on account of an Achilles problem and missed a six-week training camp in Kenya. There is live coverage of the race on both the BBC and Eurosport.