WATCH! Our interviews as Andy, Nicole, Josh and Jake head for Japan

Saturday 26th June 2021

And then there were eight.

The Scottish cohort in the GB and NI selection for the Tokyo Olympics double from four athletes to eight over a few hours in the Manchester sunshine on Saturday.

A trio of marathon runners – Callum Hawkins, Steph Davis and Steph Twell – have already been selected and Eilish McColgan turned the trio into a quartet when winning the 10,000m Trial at the European Cup.

By 6pm or so on the second day of the Muller British Champs that tally had risen to eight as four more Scots made sure of top two finishes to land automatic selection after already achieving the qualifying standard.

Andy Butchart was sixth in the Men’s 5000m final in Rio some five years ago and will now race in the Olympics for the second time after taking silver behind race winner Patrick Dever.

For Nicole Yeargin, who has only been in the sport five years, and middle distance duo Josh Kerr and Jake Wightman, this will be a first experience of the Olympics.

Check out our video interviews with the four athletes . . .