Flashback . . . Scottish Student Champs in 2012 and Eilish McColgan and Laura Muir meet on the Grangemouth track (photo by Bobby Gavin)
By Peter Jardine, Head of Communications
There’s nothing refined about the ageing track and field facility at Grangemouth stadium.
But it can be a venue where athletes are defined.
And, as the spiritual home of track and field athletics in Scotland, it has effectively elbowed Meadowbank aside as the national stadium – certainly this century.
No wonder no lesser a figure than Commonwealth champion and multiple British Record holder Eilish McColgan argues vehemently that Grangemouth must be saved as a crucial staging post where careers are forged.
Memories of early year competition still burn as brightly for Eilish as the nearby Grangemouth refinery plume which, with imagination, becomes an Olympic flame for wannabes at every age and stage . . .
‘It is really important that the facility is saved,’ insisted Eilish.
‘We don’t have too many track and field venues in Scotland so every single one is important and particularly Grangemouth.
‘It is just where young athletes get to compete in the sport we love and get to develop. I’ve raced there so many times as a kid and in my teens and have a lot of memoiries.
‘To put it simply: it’s a fundamental venue for track and field in Scotland. The Scottish Schools is there, the Age Group Champs are there and there competitions and championship events are the starting point for many careers.’
‘I do not know what can be done financially. Could it be a multi sport venue, somehow? I do not know.
‘But there has to be an avenue other than closure.’
Research by consultants acting for scottishathletics confirm Grangemouth’s central Scotland location adds to the strategic importance. No fewer than 2.9 million people live within an hour’s drive of the facility. That’s a lot of clubs ‘connected’.
‘It would be a lost opportunity for youngsters within that area and further afield,’ added Eilish.
‘And as I said, across the whole of Scotland, to lose another facility, another track, would be very damaging. I mean, it almost happened with Meadowbank, but thankfully they’ve managed to revamp that and we have a new facility there.
‘So it’s really just, I know, securing it for the next generation of youngsters coming through. They have somewhere that they can feel safe to try athletics, to…
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