WEST FIFE will have a second representative at this summer's Olympic Games after a US-based athlete sealed qualification at the weekend.

Nicole Yeargin, who lives in Los Angeles, donned a Pitreavie AAC vest for the Müller British Athletics Championships – which also offered qualification opportunities for Tokyo – and ran in the 400 metres.

The 23-year-old was born and brought up in the United States but has been cleared to run for Scotland and Great Britain as her mum, Lynn, hails from Dunfermline.

And, following a successful meet in Manchester, Yeargin will join Dunfermline-born footballer Caroline Weir – one of only two Scots, alongside Kim Little, to feature in Team GB's women's squad in that sport – in Japan next month.

Raised in Maryland and schooled in California, University of Southern California (USC) student Yeargin only took up athletics five years ago but an Olympic qualifying standard time of 50.96 seconds at the NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) Championships put her third on the Scottish all-time women's 400m list.

That also meant she topped the UK rankings going into the weekend's competition, and where a top-two finish would secure her place in Tokyo – which she achieved.

On day one of the meet, last Friday, Yeargin competed in her first-ever race in Britain and sealed her place in the final by winning her heat in a time of 53.03, edging out Brighton's Amber Anning by 0.02 seconds.

Saturday's final featured 2016 4x400m relay bronze-medallist, Emily Diamond, and Scotland's Zoey Clark, whose medal haul includes a relay bronze at the 2018 European Championships, but in-form Yeargin finished second in 51.26 behind race-winner Jodie Williams (Herts Phoenix, 51.02) to seal her Olympic place.

She will now follow in the footsteps of Linsey MacDonald, who won 4x400m bronze at the Moscow Games of 1980; Ian Mackie, who competed in the 100m at Atlanta in 1996; and recently-retired Eilidh Doyle, who won 4x400m bronze in Rio five years ago, and reached the final of the 400m hurdles, as well as the semi-finals of the latter at London 2012, in representing Pitreavie at the Olympics.

Speaking to Scottish Athletics after the final, Yeargin, who had participated in gymnastics, football and American football before focusing on the track, commented: "I'm very satisfied. I came in knowing what I could do and I'm glad to finally achieve it.

"I got out I think a little too hard but I was so excited and pumped up it's like I had to get out, because yesterday I got out a little slow, but today I knew I had to go flying from the beginning.

"It's crazy. I joined the track team to stay in shape in my senior year. I was 18-years-old; all I wanted to do was stay in shape. It's crazy to see now five years later I'm going to be an Olympian.

"I didn't come this far to just come this far. I really want to go pro, I want to do this day-in, day-out as a living and fall in love with it."

When asked about her family connection to Dunfermline, she said that her mum would be "probably so pumped", adding: "All my family from Dunfermline and Edinburgh were saying they were watching, (and that) it's weird seeing me on TV because I'm always in the States.

"Everyone's super-excited for me."

Meanwhile, one former Pitreavie athlete who had hoped to run in Manchester did not compete at the trials.

Ex-Queen Anne High School pupil Aidan Thompson, who is currently in Nashville, Tennessee, attending Belmont University, told Press Sport in March that he had hoped to test himself against the country's best at the meet.

However, posting on social media ahead of the event, the 24-year-old said: "Unfortunately, no trip home for the Olympic trials this weekend.

"With concerns about travel logistics, we decided to end my season early and take a little downtime.

"Happy to be healthy and back putting in the work preparing for my final season in the NCAA."