I’LL DO IT FOR MY GRANDAD Bedside photos were reminder to GB rower Wilson to stay focused
THE photos next to her grandpa’s Hairmyres hospital bed of her rowing served as a reminder she had to keep going.
So by day Melissa Wilson would revise for her uni exams at a desk set up by his bedside, by night she would run to a nearby hotel to train.
After all, her grandpa Richard had been the one she had posted all her medals to as she made her way in the sport down south.
His death in May means the excitement she felt when discovering the European Championships were on home soil will be mixed with other emotions today.
While podiums may be uppermost in rivals’ minds, honouring the steady hand who helped shape a flourishing career will be in Wilson’s as she takes to the water at Strathclyde Park for the first time.
The Edinburgh rower – who has just finished her law degree at Cambridge University – said: “In April my grandpa became really unwell up in Glasgow. I was revising for my finals and I got through the final GB trials but I went straight up to be with him after that.
“In all it was a six-week period and I was up with him for about two-anda-half weeks. I was revising in the hospital through the day then training in a nearby hotel.
“He passed away. It was great to be able to go up and spend that time with him. That was the right thing to do but it has been quite an intense two or three months. “He didn’t row, he loved football – a big Rangers fan. He was just a wonderful support and being that person who’d say, ‘I am so proud of you.’ “If I won a medal I would always post it up to him and he used to write back, ‘I’m custodian, I’ll look after these.’ “Any medal I’ve won is still in his house. He was custodian in chief, he was a huge support, so that was really valuable to me. I guess I want to honour that in how I race now. “But in some ways it feels a bit, ‘Right, wow, it’s quite close to him passing away and it’s not very usual for us to be competing in the UK and in Glasgow.’ In some ways it feels a bit of an unusual situation but also a really wonderful one.” Wilson 25, has been able to train for these Euros full-time with her GB team-mates since June and says the support team around her has been invaluable. Before that, her little time outwith the hospital was spent in a hotel gym in East Kilbride, trying to keep her rowing ambitions on track. She said: “In my grandpa’s ward he had photos of me rowing next to his bed, reminding me I needed to keep things on track. “The nurses were great. They would set up a little desk next to his bed so I could do my uni revision.”
DESPITE a record six medals at Gold Coast, Duncan Scott reckons there is more to come. The swimmer became Scotland’s most decorated athlete at an individual Games and ahead of Glasgow he said: “I had quite a good Commonwealth Games but that was a trial and it would be nice to move things on.”
BECKY DOWNIE’S hopes of a third European bars gold have crashed and burned after she was forced to pull out of her title defence after an injury sustained while dismounting the beam in training. Downie said: “There is bad luck and then there is my luck. I guess my time is just not right now.”