Maguire’s message remains on track
STEPHEN MAGUIRE has a plan. Several of them, actually. Most intertwined with a few pet projects stashed away to the side. A flurry of Olympic, world and European championship golds for Britain’s top sprinters have proven that the Northern Irishman has a magic touch.
It also highlighted the fact Scottish Athletics were punching above their weight when they lured him (mostly) back as their performance supremo last year in the face of six-figure offers from around the globe.
And while he’s still involved in the business of making sure the likes of Dina Asher-Smith and the allconquering relay squads don’t drop the baton en route to Tokyo 2020, Maguire is determined that Laura Muir won’t be the sole Scot hitting the heights over the next decade — with plans for a production line that can keep the successes rolling in.
That means putting the right structures in place, using the Scottish club system now been copied by the rest of the UK, and maybe even ripping up the much-criticised British coaching manuals and looking at how Muir’s mentor Andy Young went off-track and built something from scratch.
‘What can we learn from Andy and his singlemindedness from the start?’ asked Maguire, who still retains strong links with the British Athletics relay programme. ‘Even when I was first here, he was ahead of the game in knowing what Laura needed to do. How can we learn from his approach?
‘He saw this as a professional career and he wanted it. He’s probably sacrificed from a financial or social perspective. And you have to admire what he’s done. He didn’t go through a club. He went out and researched and developed his philosophy. Not everyone will fit that. But Andy’s been smart with his.’
Athletics bosses this week issued a plea to government to help generate more Muirs by building a new indoor training track in central Scotland so the best of the best can hone their skills, whatever the weather.
Money well spent, they trust. There will be a time soon, Maguire hopes, when the country’s best and brightest have a genuine choice over where they make their base.
‘I’d love us to get into a situation where Scottish athletes come back and train in Scotland on a full-time basis with the right coaches while also using altitude camps,’ added Maguire. ‘We’re starting to put that in place and developing relationships with universities where everything is in place for performance. But we’re not there.’
That Muir lives, trains and celebrates success on home turf only helps Maguire’s cause. But, as he acknowledges: ‘Laura’s the easy
one.’
It’s the rest of the current Scottish pack who he will keep closer tabs on. Euro medallist Chris O’Hare looks a man reborn. Jake Wightman’s return from injury is on course. Eilidh Doyle, still a championship performer. Young pups Neil Gourley and Josh Kerr on the rise. Others, Maguire admits, need to look hard in the mirror if they want to make it big in Japan in less than 18 months’ time or even to come up trumps at September’s World Championships in Doha.
‘I do hear some talking about getting a qualifying time,’ said Maguire. ‘If that’s on your mind, you’re not going to get a medal. It shouldn’t be about qualification. For our top people, it’s about doing well in Doha, not qualification itself.’ It’s about real conversations, he signals. Not something shied away from in his two stints in Scotland or at UK Athletics HQ in Loughborough where his approach got results that are the envy of the world. Yet in the shorter sprints, British teams have been Scot-free for almost a decade. Take out current UK 200metres champion Beth Dobbin and there’s a gaping void. A real frustration for Maguire, set to start up a relay programme in Scotland in the hope of unearthing a diamond he can polish. ‘It’s not acceptable you can win a 100m national title at 10.60 seconds,’ he says. ‘We’ve had Ian Mackie and Elliot Bunney, and Allan Wells winning an Olympic title. Sprinting’s not disappeared. Something’s going wrong.’ Plans in place. Magic tricks, ideally, up his sleeve...
If you are only thinking about a qualifying time, then you’re not going to get a medal