Turriff long jumper Lisa Ferguson took a major step towards securing a place on the Scotland team for this summer’s Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
She did so by achieving her first qualifying standard at an invitational meeting in Clermont, Florida.
The north-east athlete, who is in the middle of a one month spell of warm weather training in America, cleared 6.20 metres to finish third in the competition.
Ferguson needs to match or exceed that mark on at least one more occasion to meet the selection criteria for the games and she will have at another opportunity to do that before returning home.
She said: “I am very happy to have one qualifying standard in the bag.
“I will now rest, recover and refocus ready for my next event here in two weeks.
“My coach (Peter Stanley) has joined me here, so I’ll have a further opportunity to train well and jump further.”
Fellow Scotland international Jade Nimmo also earned a qualifying standard when finishing second at the same meeting with a best jump of 6.24.
Forres middle distance runner Mark Mitchell opened his outdoor season with two solid performances in the British Milers Club meeting at Watford.
The Edinburgh-based north athlete, who hopes to represent Scotland in the 1,500m at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games, finished fourth in the 800m in 1min 54.35sec and was second in his specialist event in 3:49.43. The 1,500m qualifying standard is 3:42.20.