Going for gold — not autographs
THEY could choose to enjoy the Commonwealth Games’ carnival atmosphere to the full, spending their down time star- spotting in the athletes’ village and making new friends from far-flung corners of the world. Or they can contend for medals.
The man responsible for putting Scotland’s leading track-andfield athletes on the Hampden podium is pretty unequivocal. None of his runners, jumpers or throwers will be playing the tourist at Glasgow 2014.
Stephen Maguire, director of coaching at Scottish Athletics, believes his plan of keeping the Team Scotland athletes at a holding camp in Ayrshire — only dropping them into the village two days before their first events — strikes the perfect balance between getting the full Games experience and doing the smart work needed to win a medal.
Once they have attended the opening ceremony, the idea is to enforce some kind of normality in an entirely abnormal situation.
‘It’s about performing on the day — there will be plenty of time for razzmatazz when it’s all over,’ said Maguire.
‘A lot of athletes get sucked in to that general buzz of being in a Games village or going around star spotting.
‘The razzmatazz doesn’t interest me at all. It’s about what happens on the track. If our athletes can perform to their potential, that’s what we want.
‘Most will be based outside of the village until two days before their event. That’s deliberate, to keep them in touch with their coach and take them away from the hype.
‘Medals can be won and lost in that critical few days before their events. So we purposely kept our base in Scotland to make sure coaches had as much contact time with their athletes as they can.
‘The coaches know how athletes work best. I want to maintain that normality for them.’
Team Scotland reckon the athletics camp can do better than the two track-and-field medals won at each of the last two Games and Maguire agrees, saying: ‘I expect it to improve. We have enough good athletes to do so. But there won’t be any soft medals.’
The Irishman will be at the UK Championships in Birmingham from Friday to Sunday, keeping a watchful eye on some of his leading contenders.
Asked what he expects from the likes of Eilidh Child, Laura Muir, Lynsey Sharp, Guy Learmonth and Eilish McColgan over the long weekend, he said: ‘We need to see a kick-on from athletes because there are places in the European Championships team at stake. ‘The Commonwealth Games come first and, if I’m being honest, putting two majors back-to-back will be difficult.
‘Handling the emotions will be a massive challenge — I’m just pleased the Commonwealths are first! If any of our leading contenders win a gold medal, for example, there will be a lot of interest.
‘But one day after they win their gold, they’ll have to get ready for the Europeans.
‘We’re going to have blips; not everyone will have a perfect runin. But a lot have shown they’re on the right course. I won’t get too excited either way by results at the moment.’