Nicole Yeargin on the Olympic disqualification that filled her with fear as she hunts medal to finish the set

Nicole Yeargin admits the fear caused by her 400m disqualification at the last Olympic Games KILLED her for a long time after she returned from Tokyo.

But since teaming up with a mind guru to get her head in gear along with her body the Scots track star is confident her Games dream is back alive and kicking. Yeargin is heading to Paris as part of the women’s 4x400m relay squad. But three years ago she also had hopes of landing an individual medal when she came in third in her heat - only to be booted out of the final after being found guilty of a lane infringement. And the 26-year-old says that painful episode is still driving her quest for success.

She said: “I guess so! I think I got anxious and scared and you think about it every time you go out on the track. That was what was killing me - the anxiety and the fear. That’s why the work with my mindset coach has really helped me clear that out and know we have a race plan. You know what to tell yourself when you get into that mode so that’s really been helping.

“I almost feel when I look back, I got DQ’d out of the heat and I really haven’t done much since then. So I was glad I was able to run a 51.3 last month and that was the fastest in two years and it’s good to feel like I’m finally coming back.”

Yeargin - who has two world championship relay bronze medals from 2022 and 2023 as well as a 2022 European championship bronze - is part of a seven-strong 4x400m relay squad heading to Paris.

In 2021 she was part of the womens and mixed 4x400m teams that finished fifth and sixth in the finals and also landed Commonwealth Games relay bronze for Scotland in 2022. But she’s already got a spot on her wall as she looks to complete the set of medals in Paris. She said: “I want to