THE HERALD REPORTS TODAY

Note from Ed-good to see a Watsonian revealing his classical education

Scotland’s Renaissance

DOUG GILLON, Athletics Correspondent December 29 2007



There is a tide in the affairs of men, which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune - Julius Caesar, William Shakespeare.

Is it too much to think that 2007 has presented such a moment, an opportunity for Scotland to relaunch? Consider the past 12 months as a year of rediscovery. For the first time since the parcel of rogues betrayed Scotland, government is in the control of the nationalist party. Their grip may be tenuous - just one by-election from losing it, after all - and if the SNP fails now, it could be terminal for nationalism. This first chance would almost certainly be their last.

Sport is central to the package that can make Scotland successful, one more reason why the government must get it right with whatever alternative they devise for the national agency, sportscotland.

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Yet shoots of sporting recovery are evident.

It's much more than just the euphoria of the Faddy Factor - and don't underestimate that. It's not just the ability to sustain half naked life in Hampden's freezing rain. Even those beyond the fringe of the Tartan Army are aware that Scotland's football team has restored credibility, and more important, instilled belief.

Yes, we still must shed that mantle of glorious failure, but three clubs in Europe's later stages represents a 37-year high, and a base to build upon. The national rugby XV ditto. The team itself had more faith than its supporters, yet with a little more might have been the surprise of the World Cup. It is now a squad capable of achieving something.

In golf, Colin Montgomerie helped bring home the World Cup. Monty may yet use this to re-kindle his own belief in his ability win a major. His partner, Marc Warren, will certainly be spurred to envision greater personal glory on the back of this. And Catriona Matthew continues to be a winner.

Jamie Murray beat his wee brother onto Wimbledon's tennis honours board in the mixed doubles, but a Grand Slam title from Andy would surprise nobody, least of all him.

Chris Hoy has assumed the status of sporting legend in 2007, with a world record, two world titles, and further additions to a lengthy catalogue of World Cup victories. And he also has two world-class compatriots in the GB cycling team in Craig Maclean and Ross Edgar.

Relatively recently, our swimmers were sunk without trace. Now Kirsty Balfour heads several world-class performers. The Beijing Olympics will present another chance to excel.

Alex Arthur has engineered his way to the brink of a world title fight, and we punch well above our weight in many other areas: motorsport, with Dario Franchitti and David Coulthard; mountain biking, with world junior champion Ruaridh Cunningham and duathlon, with European and World champion Catriona Morrison.

Sport can help reshape our nation. I leapt as high as anyone in Sri Lanka's Cinnamon Grand Hotel when Glasgow was awarded the 2014 Commonwealth Games. Two years after London hosts the 2012 Olympics, and just 400 miles away, the historical and geographical juxtaposition presents a unique opportunity for a prolonged campaign to promote a raft of social, health, regeneration, and educational agendas. These extend far beyond sport. That's why the 2014 bid was supported wholeheartedly by successive First Ministers: Jack McConnell and Alex Salmond, and bankrolled so aggressively by Glasgow City Council and national government. Sport's ability to transform will be explored as never before.

It's also why the Treasury is so generous to London's aspirations. This has nothing to do with medals. Sport's supporters have been boasting for years what it can do out of the arena. Now it's show time.

EventScotland, charged with promoting the country through sports and cultural events, helped bankroll the 2014 bid along with various major competitions. These included The Open, the World Badminton Team Championships, and World Mountain Bike Championships. But chief executive Paul Bush outlined to The Herald they have much more in their sights.

"We expect a feasibility study report on the 2015 Rugby World Cup by the end of January," he said. "The Government and SRU will get together to see how we take that forward, but it's the SRU who bid."

Scotland declared its interest in a stage of the Tour de France some five years ago. "Ministers are very keen," said Bush, "and it's now a very realistic possibility. Back in 2002, a Scottish Executive report mentioned the Tour as an aspirational event on the back of the failed attempt to host the Euro 2008 football championship.

"We spoke to the three senior Tour executives this year when they were at the Rugby World Cup. They see Edinburgh as iconic, such a magnificent backdrop, but it will not be until the mid-teens at the earliest. They've already worked out the landscape of the event to 2013- 2014, and it can go outside France only every second year.

"We are delighted about the Commonwealth Games, but it's seven years away. You can't just sit back complacently. We're already supporting the World Cross-Country Championships in Edinburgh, in March, among many events next year. The new National Indoor Arena Dalmarnock means the World and European Indoor athletics championships have to be possible. It's also suitable for Davis Cup tennis, World Cup and World Championships in gymnastics, and World Judo Championships. We'll look at all these, and the World Badminton Championships again. The velodrome there also means the possibility of World track championships and World Cup events.

"And the SECC has to be a potential venue for European and World figure skating championships. Glasgow are a very forward-thinking local authority.

"The next 10 years look very rosy for major events in Scotland. It's a matter of showcasing them. What it does is show Scotland is a serious key player on the sporting stage. These next seven years, to 2014, are a great platform. We must seize the opportunity and not waste it."

Spin-offs from sport are incalculable. Montgomery and Warren achieved global golf success in China. Hoy's latest World Cup win was at the opening of the Olympic velodrome in Beijing. This created an awareness of Scotland in the world's biggest market. Our sportsmen are Scotland's greatest ambassadors, and speak a language that crosses all cultural boundaries. We must learn from that.

The ubiquitous jar-half-empty doomsayers, will, of course, dismiss this optimistic polemic. But I believe the Theory of Negativity has been Scotland's recent downfall. We have lost our forebears' traditional guid conceit of ourselves, that knowledge of our self-worth.

Arrogance should have no place in our culture, but we need to be more confident. Less, "I'll give it my best shot", and a bit more: "I believe I'm good enough to win." If you think you're beaten, you most assuredly are. Show me a negative thinker and I'll show you a loser.

Edinburgh cyclist Hoy could have packed his Olympic and world gold medals in his saddle bag, and ridden off into the sunset when the IOC perversely decreed the kilometre sprint, his Athens gold medal event, had been dropped from the schedule for Beijing. Instead, he has mastered another event, the keirin, and won 17 successive international races.

Glasgow's World, European and Commonwealth medallist Lee McConnell could have quit athletics when injury stopped her hurdling. Instead she has tholed the physical and mental pain, and switched to the flat 400m, despite Britain already boasting the best two women in the world.

Both Scots are graduates: savvy, sophisticated, presentable, charming and articulate. They could walk into employment with fantastic sporting careers behind them. They typify athletes who dare to dream, who raise their eyes to the highest peaks and take the toughest trail, knowing the route and the summit are worth the journey. Too many are content to stay in the valley, never challenging or risking themselves, and so never discover their potential.

The talent of Scots has always been there. It may be perverse to consider Hadrian's Wall an acknowledgement that the greatest empire the world had then seen knew when to quit. If that merely suggests a Celtic talent for non-conformity to the Roman way, a talent for mayhem and mischief, fine, but those attributes bred the nation responsible for some of the greatest advances, in science, medicine, and engineering.

A catechism which reinforces the identity of the likes of Watt, Fleming, Simpson, Baird, Bell, McAdam, Kelvin, Owen, Carnegie, Burns (by no means an exclusive list) should be mandatory for our children.

To these should be added our outstanding sporting role models. Not as a history lesson, but to inspire and shape the future.

There have been many false dawns: sporting, political, economical, yet there are signs that Scotland now stands on the cusp of a period which can deliver rebirth. Carpe diem . . . seize the day.

This is not a rehearsal.

This article was posted on 29-Dec-2007, 09:28 by Hugh Barrow.