Almanac: Gray dives in at the deep end with biggest fish of British sport

ALISTAIR Gray might not be a familiar name to all followers of sport in Scotland, but the Glasgow-based managing director is certainly one of the most influential people working in sport in Britain.

And he is about to become even more so, since he is to take on the role of chairman of British Swimming from the end of next month. For Gray, who is currently chairman of British Performance Basketball and the Scottish Hockey Union, this will fulfil a personal ambition. "I applied for it because it has always been one of my ambitions to be chair of a major British governing body – not many Scots have done that over the years."

There is no question that his new role is one of the biggies, especially in the four-year lead-in to London 2012, but the challenge with basketball was arguably more daunting. In an unusual scenario, it wasn't a governing body that he chaired – and which, he confirms, he will now step down from – but rather a company established in co-operation with UK Sport to manage the GB teams in preparation for the London Games.

It has proved a phenomenally positive experiment. The men's team assembled by the Gray-led company achieved remarkable success in just two years, qualifying for the 2009 European championships in Poland, the first time a Great British team has done so in 28 years.

"Working with basketball has been one of the best experiences of my life," says Gray. "It was a case of being given a clean sheet of paper and told to create something new. We had funding but we had to assemble a group of players from scratch. What the men achieved in two years was beyond our wildest dreams; and the women might not be too far behind."

Gray was also the founding chairman of the Scottish Institute of Sport, passing the baton to Dougie Donnelly in 2005. As far as his new role is concerned, he admits that "I'm not one of life's most enthusiastic swimmers," but that past experiences with the sport, through his company, Genesis, and the SIS, encouraged him to apply.

In 1992, Genesis, the Glasgow-based strategic management consultants of which Gray is managing director, worked with Scottish Swimming to develop a four-year development plan. By the time the SIS was established, it was this, in part, that enabled the organisation to build a strong relationship, and to benefit from what the SIS had to offer. The fruits of this could be seen at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne in 2006.

But Gray also realised, in his time at the SIS, that British Swimming, which recently announced that one of its five centres of excellence will be in Stirling, differed from certain other governing bodies. "It always impressed me that they took a British approach. This can be an issue for Scottish athletes, who sometimes feel they're not equitably dealt with. Some British governing bodies say, 'The Commonwealth Games – do you have to do them?'" For all his experience in heading organisations and sport, Gray admits his specialist knowledge of swimming is limited. He is in at the deep end… from the end of November it will be a case of sink or swim – but few have proved themselves more adept at excelling in such an environment.

THERE were farcical scenes in Oxfordshire last week, with the relatively unheralded Alastair Kay, a former Scottish international, becoming the latest British cyclist to be crowned world champion.

The event was the Brompton World Championship – effectively the world folding bike championship – and the star attraction was the sullied Roberto Heras, the Spaniard who helped Lance Armstrong to several of his Tour de France victories and won the Tour of Spain three times before testing positive for EPO in 2005.

To see the bird-like Heras, who in his former life was one of the world's top climbers, on one of these small-wheeled commuter machines was surreal enough. But even more surreal was the sight of the Spaniard on the podium in a state of confusion, unable to comprehend that he had been beaten by Kay.

The silver medal, after the race around Blenheim Palace, appeared to provide Heras with scant consolation. How the mighty are fallen.

Glasgow hosts top gymnasts

MOSCOW'S loss is Glasgow's gain, with the 21st World Acrobatic Gymnastics Championships currently being staged in the Kelvin Hall after the Russians' volte-face on staging the event. Over 500 gymnasts from 30 countries are taking part in a discipline which marries sport with the arts, the gymnasts performing their routines to music.

The only Scottish competitor is Sarah Cameron, a 16-year old from Kilmarnock – Ukraine and Belarus are the strongholds – but there is a familiar face – or voice – in the form of Steve Frew, the retired Commonwealth Games gold medal-winning gymnast. Frew, who sits on the athletes' commission for the 2014 Glasgow Games, is acting as MC.

Eighteen world titles are up for grabs and it all comes to a climax with the senior events from Friday to Sunday.

The organisers are offering Scotsman readers ten free tickets for Saturday's session and another ten for Sunday. To win a pair of tickets – first come, first served – email [e-mail]. For more information see www.acro2008.com.

Hoy gets used to 'weird life'

CHRIS Hoy says his life gets "weirder and weirder," with his latest invitation coming from Ozzy Osbourne, to join him in hosting the Classic Rock Awards in London next month. Ozzy extended the invitation himself, which is bound to make Hoy's old mate Craig MacLean, a bit of a classic rocker in his youth, jealous.

Tonight, Hoy is in his home city for a City of Edinburgh Council reception for Olympic and Paralympic athletes. The event that will be hosted by the Lord Provost, George Grubb, and the City's sports leader, Deidre Brock. Hoy will also say a few words, before presenting the inaugural Chris Hoy Trophy, established by the Council to acknowledge the best young cyclist from the east of Scotland.

As Hoy has noted, the flow of young cyclists is likely to dry up if the Council does not provide an alternative to the Meadowbank Velodrome when it is demolished in 2011. He will probably be too diplomatic to mention that tonight, though.