PITREAVIE AAC athlete Nicole Yeargin played her part in helping to ensure Olympic qualification for Great Britain and Northern Ireland at the World Athletics Relays.

The 26-year-old ran in both the women's and mixed 4x400 metres disciplines at the competition in Nassau, Bahamas, and helped secure the former's place at this summer's Games in Paris.

The World Athletics Relays provided opportunities for the top two teams in each qualifying heat to seal their place at the Olympics, as well as progress to the final.

Nicole, one of three Scottish athletes chosen as part of the 32-strong squad for the relays, lined-up for the women's 4x400m heat alongside Hannah Kelly, Victoria Ohuruogu and Lina Nielsen, and they ran a season's best time of three minutes and 24.89 seconds.

With Nicole running a strong third leg, passing the baton on to Nielsen, GB were able to chase down leaders Ireland, but finished second, with the race winners setting a national record time of 3:24.38.

In the final, for which Emily Newnham came in for Nicole, GB placed fourth, with the United States, Poland and Canada claiming the top three spots.

The Pitreavie star was also on hand to play her part in the mixed 4x400m relay, for which GB also secured their spot at the Paris Olympics.

Having finished third in their first heat, Nicole, in place of Ama Pipi, joined Brodie Young, Charles Dobson and Laviai Nielsen in running in their repechage heat, which ended in a dominant win.

Young gave the team a solid top three handover, before Nielsen took them into contention in her final strides.

She handed over to Dobson, who took the lead before handing the baton on to Nicole, who had an unassailable lead, and maintained the gap to bring the team home in 3:12.99, ahead of second-placed Ukraine.

Nicole, who was born and raised in the United States, but is eligible to run for both Scotland and Great Britain as her mum, Lynn, is originally from Dunfermline, also helped GB to a bronze medal in the women's 4x400m at last year's World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary.

Last year, she was one of 67 athletes to receive funding from UK Athletics ahead of this summer's Olympics, having been nominated to join their Olympic World Class Programme (WCP) for 2023/24.

Backed by the National Lottery, the UK Sport initiative aims to to identify, develop and support talented athletes towards medal success at the Olympic Games and other major championships.

Her success at the 2023 World Athletics Championships followed on from winning bronze at the 2022 event, in Oregon, USA, as well as at the European Athletics Championships, and Commonwealth Games for Scotland, in the same year.

If selected for Paris, Nicole would compete in her second Olympic Games, having taken part at the delayed Tokyo Games of 2020 three years ago.

In those, she helped Team GB finish fifth and sixth in the women’s and mixed 4x400m relays respectively, but suffered disqualification in the heats of the individual 400m.