EILISH McColgan said last night that she is starting to believe that a spot at the Olympics in Rio could be possible after all. The 25-year-old from Dundee was dropped from UK funding and evicted from the athletes' house in Loughborough back in November after an injury-ravaged 2015 which saw her twice a break her foot in the space of seven months. After a heart-to-heart with her mother, Scottish athletics legend Liz McColgan-Nuttall, she now has two Olympic A standards under her belt at 5,000m, and is ready to strain every sinew at the UK trials in Birmingham next month to stamp her passport for her second Olympic Games. She will battle fellow Scots Laura Whittle and Steph Twell for the top two finish which would see her join a strong group of Scottish athletes in Rio, particularly in the middle and long distance events.

"At the start of 2016 I never even thought the Olympics would be possible," said McColgan. "I thought it was just a comeback year. But I went through something like this in 2011 and 2012 to get to London 2012 – and a hurdler the other say was telling me ‘maybe your timing is quite good!'

McColgan, who was in Scotland this week to present the Lindsays Cross Country Trophy to Giffnock North AAC, said she was encouraged by the potential for further big Scottish performances in Rio. "There's so much happening at the moment in terms of the Scots and the potential for Rio that it is really exciting," said McColgan. "A lot of us have grown up together competing at events, being on teams, training together at camps at home and abroad. I was in America recently for a training camp with Beth Potter and Andrew Butchart was there too. I hadn't met Andrew before but he's a great guy and I was there trackside in Holland when he took that Scottish 5000m record. He'd been bawling for me a bit earlier in my 5000m race and now we are both in the same position - we have the GB qualifying standards and need to get in the top two at the trial."