BOLTON athlete Chris Mulvaney missed out on his Olympic chance after being caught up in a nightmare journey to Madrid.

The race in the Spanish capital was the Heaton athlete's final bid to achieve the qualifying time for the 1500m in Athens.

Yet after being booked on an Air France flight to Madrid, a sudden strike by workers at Charles De Gaulle airport in Paris, where he was changing planes, meant he only arrived in Spain in the early hours of Saturday morning.

That was far from ideal preparation for his race a few hours later, and he eventually finished fourth, well outside the qualifying time of 3min 36.2secs.

Yet there is immediate consolation for Mulvaney. He has been called up for Great Britain on Sunday when he competes against America, and European and Commonwealth select teams in an international in Birmingham.

His father Shaun Mulvaney said: "Obviously he's bitterly disappointed at missing out on Athens but at the start of the season he was looking at competing in the Olympics, the American and British college finals, and gaining his first GB vest.

"He's now achieved three of those goals, so he has done tremendously well."