TALENTED former Worcester club athlete Heather Paton ended her season in style as she collected her first medal representing Scotland at the Manchester International.

The 20-year-old ran the 100m hurdles in 13.79 seconds at Sportcity to pick up an “unexpected” bronze in her final race of the campaign against strong competitors from England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

It was her last chance this season to run the 13.5-second qualification time for the 2018 Commonwealth Games but Paton knew she would not be fast enough after “clattering a hurdle hard mid-race”.

But, during what she rates as “her most successful season yet”, the Birchfield Harriers hurdler lowered her personal best to a wind-assisted 13.6 in Bedford.

As she ran a combination of the 100m hurdles and the 4x100m relay at every competition this season, Paton helped her club win the Women’s Premier League title.

Her performance arrived on the back of a 100m hurdles gold medal at the Scottish Senior Championships in Grangemouth as she continued to top her country’s rankings and pursue the national record time.

Paton’s wind-assisted 13.76 saw her finish almost a second ahead of nearest rival Katie Patullo, who ran 14.57.

The Evesham athlete had already experienced Scottish success in 2016 with a gold in the 60m hurdles at their national indoor championships.

Paton said: “I’m very lucky. I will be able to represent Birchfield in the European league where the (qualifying) time may come as the higher level of competition will push me to run even faster.”

She appreciates “a hard winter is necessary to progress and improve” but is focused on getting to the Commonwealth Games in Australia as well as “climbing to the top of the rankings and potentially going professional”.

However, at the moment, with the expenses of travel and training, the former Pershore High School pupil still relies on part-time work and support from her sponsors at Rivers Fitness to achieve her big sporting goals.

Paton, who qualifies for Scotland as the daughter of Glasgow-born former rugby league international and ex-Worcester Warriors coach Billy McGinty, welcomes new coach Andy Paul this winter in an effort to complete “her four-year dream of Commonwealth qualification”.