ALLAN Wells watched the Olympic trials with typical emotions of passion, angst, frustration and delight at the weekend, but the concern that lingered was how few Scots would next week be heading to the pre-Games training base of Macau.
Wells was Scotland's sixth and last gold medal winner in the Olympic Games' track and field events, winning the 100m in Moscow in 1980, where he set Scottish sprint records which remain today. He currently mentors a talented crop of Scotland's young
sprinters, giving him a reason to still sweat over the Scottish athletics scene, while advising sportsmen and women, and business leaders, from his Surrey base.
He is appreciative of the work being done by Scottish Athletics, the Scottish Institute of Sport and various groups and individuals to improve the quality and quantity of athletes. But he believes that a key reason why Lee McConnell is the only Scot in the GB track and field team for Beijing – at least until the final selection on Saturday – is a gnawing reluctance by some athletes and coaches north of the border to work together.
His own development lifted after he joined a training group at Meadowbank in the 1970s, he said, and that could still be the key to halting the trend of promising Scots sliding below the international stage when they progress to senior level.
"It's not easy for Scottish athletics having just one athlete at the Olympics," he said, "but that's not the be-all and end-all. We'll all watch Lee and will her on, knowing that we need role models.
"But I didn't have great Scottish sprinters to look up to – my 'role models' were Valeri Borzov (Ukrainian sprint champion] and Lynn Davies (British long-jump gold medallist], who came over as astute, clean-living, self-conscious and very competitive, traits I liked.
"But what I had were two things – regular British teams with lots of Scots in them, which meant we didn't feel inferior at that level, and a training group that really pushed you to new heights on a weekly basis.
"A lot of our athletes go to major events and only learn then about competing at a high level, because they train in ones and twos, or with other athletes who, with all due respect, are nowhere near their level. That has to change."
Wells emerged during what we could now describe as a golden era for Scottish athletics with Ian and Lachie Stewart, Chris Black, Drew McMaster, Meg Ritchie, Frank Clement, John Robson, Cameron Sharp and Linsey MacDonald just some examples of Scots performing at high levels through the 1970s and early 1980s. He also recognises that Wilson Young's Meadowbank sprinters, to whom he turned at 24 on switching from the long jump, formed a good collection of talent even if none were Olympians.
"I know I was lucky and there was some talent around then, but that can be recreated now. I had the ability in my teens and early 20s, for example, but it was when I joined the group that things changed for me. When we trained together it was like competing because we all wanted to be the best – you turned up knowing you had to perform at training, not just when competitions came round, and that pulled the eyeballs out of me to put it bluntly.
"Many coaches I speak to now agree and would like to see it in Scotland, but some, if they're honest, don't want to share ideas, far less athletes, and pool resources.
"I'm not downing Scottish athletics, because there are some great people doing great work and real talent in athletes and coaches looking towards 2010, 2012 and 2014, but you can't hang onto what the youngsters might achieve in the future. At some point you have to make it happen.
"Little has changed since I ran in terms of what it takes to reach the Olympic Games. The attitude, the focus, the need to make athletics your life – it's the same – so even though we're fighting different social distractions with younger generations now we can learn from the past.
"The Americans train in big groups and it wouldn't take much to get it working in Scotland, other than a lot of understanding from athletes and coaches to pull it together."
Wells laughs at any suggestion his idea might appear almost too simple against a worrying slide in Scots competing at world level and is resolute that his message has brought success across a spectrum of talent – from athletes to tennis players, footballers to bobsleigh stars.
"We're not talking miracle cures or wonder science here," he added, "just what works. Yes, Scotland's population won't produce a depth of world-class athletes, we lack the finance of many countries and it's harder in some events to work in groups. But the principle of pulling together quality to push each other to be the best, to make each other really hurt week-in week-out and realise the Olympics is attainable if you want it enough, is something we have to take on board if we're serious about getting more Scots to future Olympic Games."
The full article contains 871 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
