Lee McConnell has been selected to represent GB at the summer Olympics in Beijing.  She will run in the 400m, and will be flanked by English women Nicola Sanders and World Champion Christine Ohuruogu.

The Glasgow athlete will run in the individual event, where she became UK champion at the trials in Birmingham at the weekend. She will also for GB in the 4x400m, where she and her team-mates will hope to emulate, or even improve on their World Championship bronze in Osaka last year.

However it is a disappointing return in general for Scotland’s athletes, as McConnell is currently the only Scot in the British squad, the worst Scottish presence since the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, when there were none.

Hayley Haining, of Kilbarchan, is the official marathon reserve, on stand-by should Paula Radcliffe make an eleventh-hour withdrawal from the event, as she is recovering from a stress fracture in her left thigh.

Andrew Lemoncello, the Fife steeplechaser, is also harbouring slim hopes of making the cut.  After a disappointing World Championships last summer, Lemoncello found good form to claim a bronze at the European Cup in the spring, but needs to run a time inside 8:24.60 to make the squad.

Glasgow’s Susan Scott, a 1500m runner, is also in contention, having made the qualifying time, but is destined to be named behind three other athletes who have made the grade more consistently this season.