‘Birmingham 2022 medallists will inspire young athletes for years to come’ – Allison Curbishley

Thursday 17th November 2022

Photo by Bobby Gavin

News that the Alexander Stadium in Birmingham will host the 2026 European Championships has rekindled immediate fond memories of the Team Scotland performance at the Commonwealth Games in the same arena.

The tally of eight medals was the best performance by Scotland in athletics for 40 years and the exploits of Eilish McColgan, Laura Muir, Jake Wightman and others will remain inspirational for years to come.

Scottish Record holder Allison Curbishley won 400m silver at the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur – and was Scotland’s only track and field medal that time.

Now, 24 years on, the BBC Radio 5 Live athletics summariser, reflects on Team Scotland’s athletics medal haul at Birmingham 2022 and what it means for the future of the sport.

 By Allison Curbishley

‘If you look back at the Scotland team I was in in 1998 . . . they were good athletes, but they weren’t necessarily household names.

‘At Birmingham 2022, a number of the athletes that performed well weren’t a surprise; they’d been in the system with either scottishathletics or British Athletics for a number of years and we’d all watched their progression.

‘There’s just this ethos now that Scots can compete, and I think it was borne out of 2014. Although it wasn’t a great medal haul for the athletics team in Glasgow, it was the start. We’d built on 2012 and we had talent. We were just getting better at everything.

Laura Muir wins gold in the 1500m only 24 hours after landing her first Commonwealth Games medal in the 800m (photo by Bobby Gavin)

‘It’s about aspiration, believing what’s possible, and taking everyone – coaches, fans, media, the nation – on that journey with you, because the expectation is there.

‘I’m not saying we didn’t have that in my day, we certainly had the talent, but it was just so disjointed.

‘Kuala Lumpur was still very early in my career. The focus for a lot of athletes was the build-up to the 2000 Olympics, but the Commonwealths for me was just such an amazing opportunity . . .

‘You hear Jake (Wightman) talk about it in 2018, you get that medal at the Commonwealth Games, and it almost spurs you onto great things. That’s exactly what happened for me.

Allison Curbishley picked out Eilish McColgan’s 10,000m title win as her favourite moment – and the legend inside the Team Scotland kit says it all (photo Bobby Gavin)

‘My favourite…