WHISPER it but, just five weeks into the athletics qualifying period for next year's Commonwealth Games, the omens are looking quite bright for Scotland.

Now, don't rush to the bookies, surrendering the readies in a punt on the number of medals Scottish athletes might win in Glasgow 2014 (they are aiming to surpass the record of 10 won in Brisbane). That still seems a big challenge, but at least we can anticipate a team capable of performing with greater distinction than when last on home soil, at Edinburgh in 1986.

On that occasion, our biggest contingent (56-strong) won six medals, a haul grossly inflated by a boycott. Scotland fielded teams in all four relays and were last in three and second last in the other.

As of yesterday, though, eight men and seven women (including three elite athletes with disabilties) had surpassed the 2014 standards. Given that the window remains open until June 8 next year, and that the majority of the 51-strong preparation squad have yet to see action, this is a remarkable total.

Consider this. No fewer than 13 Scottish athletes (five men, eight women) are currently among the top three of their event in the UK. At the end of the season prior to the 1986 Games, there were just eight Scots in the top three.

Chris O'Hare and Laura Muir (1500m, 3:38.48/4:12.36), Mark Dry (hammer, 74.46m), Derek Hawkins and Susan Partridge (marathon, 2:16.50/2:30.45), are currently No.1 in Britain. So are Meggan Dawson-Farrell (wheelchair 1500m) and Libby Clegg (visually impaired 100m).

It has to be acknowledged that many of the 2014 scottishathletics standards are modest, and that the development of youngsters such as Jax Thoirs (pole vault), Nick Percy (discus), and James McLachlan (long jump), would have been in the realm of fantasy even 12 months ago. This is hugely encouraging.

Despite fairly soft standards, there will still be some desperate gaps. No Scottish male has achieved the required standard at 100m (10.25), 200m (20.80), or 400m (45.45) in more than a decade. That's unlikely to change by next year, so men's relay squads are a non-starter. The 4x400m time is superior to the Scottish record, and the 4x100m mark has only ever been achieved by the Scottish quartet (David Jenkins, Allan Wells, Cameron Sharp, and Drew McMaster) which set a UK record to claim Commonwealth gold in 1978.

Only one Scottish woman (39 years ago) has posted the 100m qualifying standard, and only Lee McConnell has recorded the 200m mark in the past 14 years. So there will be no women's sprint relay squad, although there is optimism for a 4x400m squad of medal potential. The reigning hurdles silver medallist Eilidh Child has already run inside the flat 400m time in a relay, but there are at least a dozen other athletes for whom the standard this year should be a formality.

Thoirs, studying in the US, is surely among those who can hope to be named this autumn, when a first tranche of athletes will be selected. The pole vault bar was set at 5.20m. Thoirs, who turned 20 last month, has cleared 5.37m and then 5.40m last weekend, both Scottish records, subject to ratification.

McLachlan has moved to second on the Scottish all-time long-jump rankings (7.86m) with a 2014 qualifier at just 21, and Nick Percy tops the UK under-20 discus rankings with a Scottish record of 60.75m. Guy Learmonth (just 21) ran inside the required 800m time indoors during the winter. They should head the new kids on the blocks in the 2014 team.

Yet the fact that so many Scots have achieved the Games target so early in the season (though two such performances are needed, save for wheelchair competitors) confirms that our qualifying threshold is modest.

England's are so stringent that they have prompted scathing criticism. Their 5000m time (13:03.00) for example, has only been achieved by two UK athletes: the Olympic champion Mo Farah and former world record-holder Dave Moorcroft. The Scottish standard is 13:35.00 – and the only Scot to have done that in the past 15 years (Andrew Lemoncello) no longer contests the event.

The women's long jump mark is 6.70m, 20cm further than the distance which took Commonwealth gold in Delhi. The Scottish A standard is 6.20m. England's athletes won 16 individual medals in Delhi, but if the new qualifying level had been in force, only six of them would been on the plane to India.

Any English athlete at Hampden next year will be a formidable opponent.