Eilish McColgan backing Glasgow Games to be success with a year to go

The Herald Scotland

3 days ago

Back on terra firma, Finnie took her place at Kelvingrove alongside dignitaries, Games competitors both past and present, a gaggle of photographers and reporters, and an even larger phalanx of PR folk and media management types, the latter surely one of Scotland's growth industries.
Tourists and passers-by curiously poked their heads in from time to time, too, wondering what all the fuss was about. The trick, of course, is to ensure there are still similar levels of intrigue by the time these watered-down, largely unloved and unwanted Games get underway in 12 months' time.
Glasgow has taken the hit - if not financially - by agreeing belatedly to take on the burden of hosting, sparing the Commonwealth Games from likely extinction after Victoria, Australia backed out of the arrangement and agreed to pay £100m just to wash its hands of it.
The hope is, of course, that Glasgow can recapture some of the magic of its 2014 predecessor when the sun shone and the event went on to become a Scottish medal-laden success story. The presence of Usain Bolt undoubtedly helped, too and how the organisers could do with similar magic dust from somewhere with fewer events and no free-to-watch road events to draw in the general public.
They have done well to bring on board Eilish McColgan as one of their ambassadors. The athlete is not just the reigning 10,000m Commonwealth champion from 2022 but a refreshingly outspoken figure who will happily put her voice out there to lend her support.
McColgan was cagey about definitely committing to defending that title having made the career transition to primarily road racing but the Dundonian believes the cream of British athletics will get behind these Games and help to make it a triumph.
'Obviously I've not qualified and I don't have a crystal ball so I don't know what the future holds but I'll definitely be making it high on my agenda to try and be here as an athlete and compete,' she said.
'My main ambitions now are certainly on the road. But I think for me it's hard to turn down an opportunity to race in Glasgow at a home championship. How often do I get to do that?
'I don't think we are ever short of top athletes competing. I keep seeing people saying, 'do you think the top people will show up?' but your Laura Muirs, your Jake Wightmans, your Josh Kerrs, they're there all the time as I think there's something so unique about representing Scotland.
'We're very patriotic, we're a small nation but it's just special. We don't get the chance to do it very often so everyone does turn up. I remember Jake saying when he won the world championships, 'I need to get myself ready now for the Commonwealth Games'.
'You think, 'you've just won the worlds, it's the biggest title there possibly could be'. But for him, it was actually just equally as important that he made sure he got ready for Commie Games.
'Even in the England team, you have KJT [Katarina Johnson-Thompson], who's an Olympic medallist, you'll have Keely Hodgkinson, everyone turns up. I don't know if it is just something unique, you're representing your smaller nation and you don't get the chance to do that very often.
'It showcases something, maybe it's the community side of it, I don't know what it is. But I think the top athletes will be there regardless.'
The comparisons with 2014 will be inevitable but not necessarily helpful, with the Scottish public expecting one thing only to be delivered a much smaller facsimile, like the mini model of Stonehenge descending onto the stage in Spinal Tap. McColgan, though, doesn't believe it's an issue.
'I think people are just excited that the Games are coming back to Glasgow. I think Glasgow has done a great job in stepping in at the last minute. There could have been an alternative world where this didn't even happen at all so I think kudos to them for actually putting it on and making it work.
'Yes, it's going to be scaled down but there's still a hell of a lot of events, there's still going to be a a lot of sports taking part where young kids can go along, be inspired and go along to their local club because that really is the knock-on effect.
'The amount of kids that we had joining the Hawks [Hawkhill Harriers in Dundee]... we have a waiting list to this day and it's all come from Glasgow [2014] and it's just spiralled. People often say, 'is there a legacy? how much does it impact?'
'But I think the waiting list at my local club is a great example of that and it's not just Dundee. I'm sure it's in other corners of Scotland as well, clubs all across Scotland. So for me, that's a really important part of it.'
A broadcast deal is yet to be agreed but McColgan is confident the BBC or another station will step in to show it in the UK.
'I think it's really important,' she adds. 'I mean you'll have kids from all corners of Scotland, not even just Scotland across the world, that will see athletes from their local town, their local club and think, 'yeah, I want to do that'.
'If it's not on TV, it's not broadcast, then you can't see it and you can't believe in it. And for me that's really important.'