Gold, silver and bronze international cross-country medals put Jim Brown in a class of his own.

Jim Brown is a Lanarkshire PE teacher, a still-wiry, unassuming figure who hides a unique athletics record. He is the only Scot, and one of only four British athletes to have a complete set of medals from 105 years of international cross country. And he is the only athlete worldwide to have achieved that sweep as a junior.

Close contemporaries, legends of the sport, could not match him, even combining their junior and senior careers. The feat eluded Scotland's 1970 gold and silver 5000 metres Commonwealth double act, Ian Stewart and Ian McCafferty, who claimed two out of three. Seven years before he won Commonwealth 10,000m gold, Lachie Stewart took junior bronze - only for the race to be declared void because some competitors lied about their age. Another prodigious Scot, Eddie Knox, also managed two out of three. When Springburn Harrier Knox won the junior title in 1967, erstwhile Gretna owner Brooks Mileson was third.

Brown collected his first medal (bronze) at San Sebastian in 1971, two years after the future world 10k record-holder Dave Bedford had won the title. The Lanarkshire man stepped up to silver the following year, at Cambridge, and was preparing for his senior Scotland debut when the rules were changed for 1973.

"The Cross de Nations had just been taken over by the International Amateur Athletics Federation," he recalled. "They changed the qualifying age, and I got an extra chance as a junior in Belgium. So I was the oldest-ever junior winner. I was 20."

The International Cross Country Union had believed in hills, hedges, fences, gates, ditches, and plough. But with the IAAF, that traditional went out of fashion. "It was the start of artificial barriers and obstacles, with flat stuff being introduced for TV coverage," said Brown.

"The 1973 race, on Waregem Hippodrome was the usual - it's always a very fast opening mile," recalled Brown. "We'd looked at the route before, and Andy Brown, one of the coaches, spotted a gully with a post at the bottom. He told me to hang tight to the rope and swing around the post, and I would get five or six yards, and then when I got to the top to let them have it for about 400 yards. And that's what I did. I got a wee gap, and thought I was going to do the same next time, but when I came round, there was an official standing in front of the post, so I'd to go through the middle of the gully. But I pretty much held the gap to the end."

Franco Fava, third behind Brown the year before was fourth this time. The Italian later finished eighth in the Olympic marathon. Now a journalist he will be reporting on the event in Edinburgh.

Brown thought he had a chance to win on his first senior appearance the following year, at Monza. "I blew it big time," he said. "I thought there was 400 or 500 metres to go, and I just held my ground, but some of the guys shouted 200 to go."

He was less than six seconds from gold. "I felt I should have got something out of that. I thought there would be time again, that I'd win this next year, but there's always a new kid next year. That was my chance. I'd a bit left. The guys were lying pole-axed, and I was just standing, shell-shocked, realising I'd made a major boob."

The inevitable injuries came along, Achilles and calf, and though he was first Scottish finisher five times in the senior race, 24th was his next highest position.

His Scottish 10,000m record of 28:00.62 (1975), is still second fastest by a home Scot, 11 seconds faster than Lachie ran to take Commonwealth gold.

Yet he was denied a major track championship for Britain despite apparently qualifying at the AAA championships. "I felt it was a bit of a slap in the face."

"So, instead, I went to the Coatbridge five miles, a really big race then, and I beat Ian Stewart, and then went to Berwick for the Round the Walls race the next day, and beat Mike McLeod later Olympic 10k silver medallist.

If I'd gone to the Europeans that year, I think I'd have got a medal.

"But it was a time when I feel there was some prejudice in selection.

I was running for Clyde Valley, a small fish in a big pond in Britain. I felt, being based up in Scotland, that there was no back-up to assist me on a split selectors' decision."

Brown was partly contemporaneous with another Lanarkshire prodigy, Nat Muir, and in hindsight considers it a mistake not to have trained together. "We did so just once, a winter club night session at Coatbridge: two five-mile loops.

We usually ran about 58 minutes, but the pair of us ran it under 51.

"The boys were spread out like a washing line behind, and didn't want to know us. They said we should have numbers and pins: This is supposed to be a club run'. We were like a pair of Rotweillers. So we never trained together again.

"But we should have. It was a bit silly. I think we were a bit territorial . . . darkest Lanarkshire. He was training in Holytown and I was from Salsburgh - about four miles of a difference.

"Looking back, I think the best guys should train together. I don't think you should over-train together. When there's a lot of talent, there's a lot of aggression as well. So it should be closely monitored. But you should do the key fast explosive speed sessions together, the ones that are going to hurt."