Olympic athletes Eilidh Child and Eilish McColgan will head into the outdoor track season with top-10 world indoor rankings behind them.
Kinross-shire’s Child won a gold and silver in the European championships and has been rated eighth in the world at 400m (her main event is the 400 hurdles).
Carnoustie steeplechaser McColgan made it to fifth in the 3000m.
In her breakthrough season, another Kinross-shire athlete, middle distance runner Laura Muir, was ranked 30th.
Scotland had seven track stars in the top 30 following the indoor season, matching combined efforts of the previous four years.
It is viewed as the clearest sign so far of the Glasgow 2014 effect proving a motivational spur for Scots as the countdown to the Commonwealth Games intensifies.
That process officially began on April 1 with the opening of the selection period.
The local trio were joined by Lynsey Sharp, Chris O’Hare, Guy Learmonth, Emily Stewart. America-based O’Hare is ranked in two events at fifth in the mile and 11th in the 1500m.
The Scottish Association of Track Statisticians crunched the numbers for scottishathletics, the sport’s governing body, with analyst Arnold Black observing: “There is a clear improvement in 2013 in the world rankings against recent years.
“In 2009 there were three Scots in the top 30, one each in 2010 and 2011 and two in 2012. So the tally of seven athletes for 2013 matches the figure for the previous four years.
“As for the all-time lists, those are perhaps a better judge of quality in depth. The women in particular have improved significantly on the past two years with 16 impressions on the list as opposed to eight in 2012 and six the year before that.”
Nigel Holl, scottishathletics chief executive, stressed the importance of good indoor performances like Child’s gold and silver at the Europeans, Muir’s UK title win in Sheffield and high jumper Smith’s Scottish native record leap at Glasgow in January.
Holl said: “The form these excellent athletes have shown will need to be carried forward and developed in the outdoor season where of course appropriate form will count towards Glasgow 2014 selection in terms of standards (two required in the vast majority of disciplines, one for marathon, 10,000m and combined events).
“What I will say is that eye-catching performances can help inspire youngsters.
“If good displays by Scots recently inspire even one youngster to take up the sport, stay in the sport, work harder, pay more attention to their coach or set themselves targets then we will be delighted.”
Scots in world top 30 in 2013 indoor season Chris O’Hare, mile, 5th; Eilish McColgan, 3,000m, 5th; Eilidh Child, 400m, 8th; Chris O’Hare, 1,500m, 11th; Guy Learmonth, 800m, 21st; Emily Stewart, 3,000m, 23rd; Lynsey Sharp, 800m, 29th; Laura Muir, 1,500m, 30th.