The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
2022 Games chief hopes Muir will fancy triple crown
Commonwea l th Games chiefs plan to reach out to the likes of Dundee Hawkhill Harrier Laura Muir and Jemma Reekie to come to Birmingham after designing a schedule that won’t leave them burnt out.
Organisers of the 2022 competition have unveiled their revamped programme with 10 days of sporting action starting on July 29 and events spread over the Midlands.
But with the Games squeezed in between the World Athletics Championships in Oregon and the Europeans in Berlin, there are fears that the country’s top track stars will give it a miss.
But although Games CEO Ian Reid admits marathon master Callum Hawkins could have to pass up on a chance to rewrite his doomed bid for gold from
Gold Coast in 2018, he believes there is enough breathing space for Muir, who hails from Milnathort, to recover from her global tilt and get to Birmingham – before heading onwards to defend her European 1,500 metres title.
Reid said: “The area of challenge with all these and anything in a compressed time frame is the longer distance events and some of the multi discipline events.
“I think it will be up to the athletes to determine if they can participate in all the events or some of the events.
“We are hopeful as are World Athletics that ultimately this triple crown opportunity, this grand s lam approach , is unprecedented and that history could be made by making their mark abroad at home, on a
Commonwealth scale on a global scale and Europeans.
“That focuses primarily on the home nation athletes.
“We are working very closely with the athletics associations across the home nations so we can ensure that this is a priority in their scheduling.”
Plans, the Scot confirmed, have been put in place to deal with a scenario where coronavirus impacts on the Games and the participating athletes in two years’ time.
And huge concerns will linger over whether Covid19 might limit attendance by fans and how a ny uncer tainty would hit ticket sales when they start next summer.
But Reid added: “We’ve got another year. If you look at the likes of the Lions tour or Rugby League World Cup, they’ve been successful. There is no doubt that there is a huge appetite among the public to get back to venues and to live sport.”
Muir, who won Performer of the Year at the 4J Studios Scottish Athletics awards last weekend, admits the planning with her coach Andy Young for potentially the most important two years of her career is going to be problematic with so much disruption.
She said: “I’ve resumed training and hope to get in a strong block now.
“Whether that is here, or abroad, I don’t know – when and where are a bit up in the air in terms of a foreign camp. We will have to see how things go.
“But I think Andy knows, after this year, that if Jemma and I are here for a spell then we can come out strongly.”