PITREAVIE AAC star Nicole Yeargin has been selected to receive funding from UK Athletics ahead of next year's Olympic Games.

The 26-year-old, a two-time World Athletics Championships bronze medallist, is one of 67 athletes that has been nominated to join the organisation's 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.

Nicole, who represents Scotland and Great Britain, despite being born and brought up in the United States, as her mum, Lynn, is originally from Dunfermline, is one of eight Scots put forward for the programme.

The WCP is split into several levels reflecting actual and potential performance development levels of athletes, from the top tier 'Olympic Podium' level of funding to 'Olympic Podium Potential', 'Olympic Relays', and 'Olympic Confirmation Level', on both an individual and relay basis.

Maryland native Nicole, who was selected for last year's programme, has been nominated in the 'Olympic Relays' level after bagging another major competition medal this year.

READ MORE: Pitreavie star Nicole runs to World Athletics Championship bronze

In August, she competed for GB at the World Athletics Championships, held in Budapest, Hungary, in the women's 4x400 metre relay.

Nicole ran in the heats, alongside Laviai Nielsen, Amber Anning and Yemi Mary John, helping secure qualification for the final in a season's best time of three minutes and 23.33 seconds.

She then raced in the final - which brought the curtain down on the championships - alongside Nielsen, Anning and Ama Pipi.

Running the anchor leg, Nicole took the baton in second place, behind Jamaica and ahead of the Netherlands, but a sensational run from Femke Bol saw the Dutch quartet take a stunning gold, with the Pitreavie star clinching bronze for GB in a split time of 49.80, securing a new team season's best of 3:21.04.

That success in Budapest was Nicole's second World Championship 4x400m bronze, following success at the 2022 World Athletics Championships in Oregon, USA, where she also reached the semi-finals of the individual 400m.

In addition to her global medal, Nicole also won relay bronze last year at the European Athletics Championships, and for Scotland at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.

She is aiming to compete at her second Olympics in Paris, taking place between July 26 and August 11 next year, after competing at the Tokyo Games in 2021, which were delayed a year due to COVID-19.

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.

Nicole, one of 18 athletes nominated for 'Olympic Relays' level funding, is joined on the programme by fellow Scots Josh Kerr, Laura Muir, Jemma Reekie and Jake Wightman (Olympic Podium); Neil Gourley and Eilish McColgan (Olympic Podium Potential); and Alyson Bell (Olympic Confirmation Level).

In announcing the athletes invitied onto the WCP, British Athletics stated: "Athletes are nominated for the WCP to further the aim of UK Athletics (UKA) to win medals at Paris 2024 or Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games.

"Therefore, UKA must be confident that any athlete nominated for the WCP has the realistic potential and demonstrable performance capability and capacity to make the necessary progress to achieve a medal at least in one of the next two Olympic Games.

"UKA are committed to the principle that winning will always be achieved with integrity and in line with UK Sport’s ambition of ‘Keep Winning and Win Well’."

Last month, UK Athletics announced that West Fife's 2021 T20 1500m Paralympic champion, Owen Miller, and Fife AC team-mate Ben Sandilands, who this year won gold in the same discipline at the Para Athletics World Championships, would receive 'Paralympic Podium' level funding from the Paralympic World Class Programme for 2023/24.