Australian 400m runner Steve Solomon leaving it to last minute to push for Olympics qualification

FOUR years of planning has come down to one race in a small town in Belgium for Steve Solomon.

Australian 400m runner Steve Solomon will aim for Olympic qualification in Rio on Monday.

FOUR years of planning has come down to one race in a small town in Belgium for Steve Solomon.

The Olympic 400m finalist from London 2012 has been forced to trek all over Europe in his attempt to qualify for Rio after a string of near-misses.

Solomon will compete in Oordegem, Belgium, on Monday — just hours before the Olympic team selection deadline.

He needs to run under 45.40sec to qualify — a time that has eluded him all season since he won the national title back in April.

The Sydney sprinter came up short on Saturday in his latest attempt, clocking 46.26sec at a meet in Kortrijik, Belgium.

Solomon was one of Australia’s biggest success stories from the London Games, coming from nowhere to make the 400m final at the age of 19.

He seemed to have the world at his feet but has failed to get back to anywhere near those heights since.

The Sydney sprinter’s troubles started after the Olympic Games when he moved to Stanford University in the US to combine running with a medical degree.

He was plagued by injury problems there and was then forced to have hamstring surgery in 2014 after tearing it badly in the semi-final of the Glasgow Commonwealth Games.

In a desperate bid to get his Rio campaign in order, Solomon left America and moved to Canberra last year where he is coached by Ukrainian Iryna Dvoskina, the daughter of his original coach Fira.

He has had more than a dozen attempts to get the time since the Olympic trials in April, the closest being a 45.44 sec run in Townsville.

The Olympic dream of Australian 800m record holder Alex Rowe is over.

Rowe had also been travelling around Europe searching for a qualifying time but failed again at the Kortrijik meet where fellow Victorian Jeff Riseley won the B-race in 1min46.67sec and Rio hopeful Peter Bol ran third in the A-race in 1:46.53sec.

The selectors have a tough decision to make on the make-up of Australia’s three representatives in the two-lap event.

Luke Mathews is guaranteed a spot with Riseley, Bol and Joshua Ralph fighting it out for the two other positions.

It looks like Ralph, who tripped and fell in the Olympic trial, will be the unlucky one given Riseley and Bol have both clocked faster times than him in recent weeks.

Originally published as Australian 400m runner Steve Solomon leaving it to last minute to push for Olympics qualification