Kilsyth athlete Holly McArthur back with lifetime long jump best

The 19-year-old soared through the six-metre barrier for the first time with a jump of 6.09, eclipsing her previous best of 5.97.

Holly was delighted with her performances over the weekend at Bedford - she also reached the 100 metres hurdles final - as she seeks to get back into the competitve groove after taking some time out following last year’s Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast.

She said: “I was really pleased with it. I was just looking forward to getting back out into the groove of competing again.

“After the Commonwealth Games I took a bit of a break because Australia was quite early [in the year].

“I did a bit of travelling and over the winter I was toying with the idea of playing about with the 400m hurdles, for various reasons but also because I thought 400 hurdles would help with my running when I came back to the heptathlon a year later.

“The plan was to do 400 hurdles this year, but I missed the variety of the combined events too much so I picked the heptathlon back up in March and am happy to be back.

“I had a few niggles a month or so ago so haven’t competed a lot this year.

“But I did a heptathlon in Tenerife which went all right, all my events were solid and good season openers but I know there’s more in the tank.”

Holly’s next competition is the Scottish Combined Events in three weeks’ time in Grangemouth and although there are no major championship goals this year, she is also targeting selection for Scotland for the Home Internationals in Manchester in August.

Frormer Kilsyth Academy pupil Holly, who now studies at Strathclyde University, added: “I scored 5397 at Tenerife a few weeks ago but there’s definitely more to be put onto that score at the Scottish and hopefully I’ll then have another combined events towards the end of the year and push towards getting back into PB territory again.”