A FAST rising Ayrshire track and field athlete has been called up by Team Scotland for a second successive Commonwealth Games.

Hammer thrower Rachel Hunter, who represents North Ayrshire Athletics Club, was one of 25 athletes named for next year's event on Australia's Gold Coast.

She was the youngest person in the hammer competition at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow and the first Scottish athlete to compete in Hampden.

Rachel, from Ayr, reached the final in Glasow aged just 19 and finished in a very creditable seventh spot.

She has since represented Great Britain in Estonia, Portugal and Gran Canaria and has also gained numerous Scottish caps in Loughborough, Manchester as well as Glasgow.

Rodger Harkins, Performance Director at scottishathletics said: “I want to offer my congratulations to the athletes and coaches selected. They have really performed well in the past year and made a commitment to the Commonwealth Games and to a Gold Coast event being held in April. I’m really pleased with the application and planning that’s already being shown and has been shown over the past few months.

“When you take in the way Scottish athletes and coaches have stepped up over the past two years – and their involvement in the Olympics in Rio and then London 2017 – then we see the strength and the depth. Here we are seeing that reflected in a Team Scotland selection for athletics.

“What we have with this selection is a team with a very high percentage of final contenders.