JOHN GREECHAN Chief Sports Writer At the end of the day, I pushed it too far. But there has to be more support for athletes

AMID the white heat of argument and the grey noise of equivocation and excuses, Callum Hawkins is clear on one key point.

‘When you are rolling around the ground for, like, 90 seconds, there should be a point where someone decides: “Yeah, he’s not getting back up”.

‘I mean, somebody shouting: “No” when they don’t have the ability at all to get up, they’re not able to... they’re clearly in distress…’

Hawkins became probably the most famous Team Scotland athlete at the 2018 Commonwealth Games when, with the marathon gold medal virtually within his grasp, he collapsed — twice, the second time for good — two kilometres from the finish line.

The debate that has raged since, including arguments about the start time of a race run in sweltering temperatures, has focused largely on whether the elite competitor should have been allowed to pick himself up and carry on after that first fall on the Gold Coast Highway.

Addressing the issue for the first time since the incident that saw him rushed to hospital for an overnight stay, the 25-year-old said: ‘At the end of the day, I was the one who pushed it. But, as an elite athlete, you do have that competitiveness.

‘Something needs to be done to help athletes before they get to that stage. Someone should have stepped in. Because, once I got back up, I have no recollection of that. So I was on autopilot.

‘I think it’s almost like instinct for an athlete to refuse help, because I was in a medal position and wanted to finish. You know that, if somebody helps you, it will take that medal away from you. But I probably didn’t have the ability to even say: “Help”. I just had the instinct to keep going, pushing through.

‘I think, when they tried to lift me, I said: “No, no, it’s all right — my dad will get me”. I think it was a bit ruder than that!’

His father, Robert, is also coach to both Callum and brother Derek. As a member of Team Scotland, he was at least nearby. But he was going through a different kind of torture while watching his boy suffer.

‘My mum couldn’t watch it,’ said Hawkins. ‘She had to leave the room, especially seeing me there helpless.

‘My dad was at 35km and he had to rush to the hospital by tram, not knowing what condition I was in.

‘My girlfriend was pretty shook up. You never want to put them through something like that.’

Hawkins is still in recovery, 11 days on, doing nothing more than the odd bit of cycling to get his legs moving again.

The European Championships in August have been ruled out. In distress: Hawkins lies flat out on the Gold Coast Highway just 2km from the finish after leading the men’s marathon

Next summer’s World Championships in Doha might also be given a hard pass.

The 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, where temperatures are expected to be worse than in Australia, remain the main aim for Hawkins. And, of course, there are the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.

Reluctant to condemn Gold Coast 2018 organisers for the length of time it took for medical help to reach him, he also absolves gold medal winner Michael Shelley of criticism for passing him by en route to victory.

‘I had medical attention,’ he pointed out. ‘And, at the end of the day, it’s a race.

‘What could he have done? He messaged me that night or the next morning to say it’s not the

way he wanted to win, sending his condolences.

‘I couldn’t tell you what I would do in that situation. At that point in the race, you are pretty much hanging on, as well. So he’s maybe not even thinking straight.’

On his own mental state during the race, Hawkins — who collapsed just after the 40km mark — revealed: ‘I remember 35km. Between that and when my legs went, I can’t remember much. I do remember coming round that corner, seeing the bridge and thinking: “I don’t really have much to go”.

‘And then my legs almost like switching off on me, turning to jelly. I remember trying to stay up and then falling over. Trying to get up, but I don’t actually remember getting up.

‘I was a bit like: “What is f ****** going on?”. Then when I fell I was like “F ****** get up!”.

‘I knew I only had a mile, a mile and a half, and I knew if I could get up and finish I could get a medal. Or like keep going, and if three people pass me, then you can stop.

‘It was all about the medal. It wasn’t like: “Oh no, I am feeling terrible …”. It was all about how that opportunity had gone. I had put maybe six months of preparation, from the Worlds onwards, to get that medal, so it feels like an opportunity missed. Now I have to wait another four years to right the wrong.

‘It is not the way I would have wanted to be the story of the Games. I would rather have won the gold. What will it take to get

rid of that tag? Probably a gold in Birmingham.’

While the wheelchair racers went off just before dawn on the Gold Coast, the decision to start the men’s marathon at 8.10 am — meaning they were hitting that home stretch just as the hottest day of the Games was beginning to burn up — always looked dangerous.

Moving forward, Hawkins would like to see major championships consider a ‘Plan B’ when it comes to timing, arguing: ‘If you’re expecting certain temperatures, maybe you move it earlier or late at night.

‘Perhaps better information on road temperatures, too. Because you can say 28 degrees but you see it in F1, when the temperature might be 21 but the road is 40.’