SHOT-PUTTER Scott Lincoln hasn't given up hope of an Olympic surge as he bids to get 2016 under way in style at the weekend.

Paul Wilson, multi-events coach at City of York Athletic Club and the man looking to guide the 22-year-old to international glory, said a tilt at the European Athletics Championships in Amsterdam in July could put Lincoln in with a chance to make the the Olympic qualifying standard ahead of the games in Rio later in the summer.

Lincoln, who had a stellar 2015 which saw him claim the British Championships at the Alexander Stadium, in Birmingham, gets back into action at the Vienna Classic on Saturday.

He returns to Austria as the defending champion and Wilson said his charge had already been making great strides in winter training.

"There has been a lot of weight-lifting and it has gone really well," he said. "Scott has been throwing personal bests with a heavy shot in training and he is throwing much further than at this stage last year.

"He competed in this event last year and won it."

Currently the world number 118, Lincoln's lifetime best of 18.54 metres came with his last throw in the British last July as he beat Zane Duquemin into second place.

His best improved nearly a metre from the previous year and a similar improvement would see him soar up the rankings.

He only failed to win four of the 18 competitions he entered last season as he became British Under-23 champion and the English title holder.

Lincoln, from Brompton, also claimed a York Active Sports Award, winning the Sportsman of the Year prize, and Wilson added his immediate target is to reclaim his spot as the nation's top thrower as he gets back into competitive action.

"We are hoping this year to qualify for the European outdoor championships and that could put him in with a chance of gaining the Olympic standard," he explained. "He works full time and is up against a lot of students, who have lots of time to train.

"But he is in cracking shape."

After his Vienna foray, Lincoln will move on to the Indoor British Championships, in Sheffield at the English Institute of Sport, at the end of February.