OLYMPIC hopeful Joe Thomas will hope to play a major supporting role to Usain Bolts headline act in Ostrava this evening.

Bolt will make all the headlines in his 100m against Dwain Chambers.

But Thomas had been due to face Kenyan 800m world record holder and world champion David Rushida, but the African pulled out yesterday.

The 24-year-old from Pontypridd needs to achieve a time of 1min 45.6secs, the A qualifying standard for the Olympics, after watching English rivals Andrew Osagie and Michael Rimmer already achieve that target this summer.

It is seven tenths of a second quicker than his outdoor personal best, but Thomas is hoping for a repeat of his remarkable indoor campaign when he clocked sixth successive personal best on the way to a World Indoors semi-final in Istanbul in March.

A heel injury curtailed his hopes of a medal, but Thomas is hoping to have recovered from this setback.

Hopefully if I can get the standard in the first couple of races, it will take some pressure off me, he said.

I can look to the trials at the end of June where I will be looking to be in peak form and finish in the top two.

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Welshman Thomas aiming to prove another success in ace Bolt’s shadow