All recent stories regarding Scottish players and the Great Britain badminton programme have involved their departure from the training headquarters at Milton Keynes.
Robert Blair led the way and Imogen Bankier followed suit as Scotland's top players struggled to adapt to relocation down south. There is, one success story, though. Paul Van Rietvelde has been based in England for more than 18 months and has emerged as Scotland's leading men's doubles player.
At the Scottish International Championships in Glasgow's sparkling new Emirates Arena, he continues his fledgling partnership with the Englishman, Marcus Ellis, and the pair are showing considerable promise. At only a year old, the partnership is still fairly new; but after a stuttering start, they appear to be gelling well.
Van Rietvelde, 21, has long been touted as a player with potential but is only now beginning to realise it. "I think that I'm still going through the transition from junior to senior," he said. "When I started playing with Marcus, I really felt that I was the junior player in the partnership but now it's becoming a bit more equal."
Van Rietvelde and Ellis, the No.4 seeds, opened their campaign at the Emirates Arena with a win against Van Rietvelde's compatriots Martin Campbell and Patrick MacHugh but will face a much stiffer test tonight in a rematch against Polish pair Adam Cwalina and Premyslaw Wacha, who beat them in the Dutch Open last month.
Van Rietvelde's Milton Keynes experience has, thus far, been almost entirely positive. "I really enjoy training there; there's a really strong group of players and I feel that the depth in the quality of players is pushing me to improve," he said.
Since the inception of the GB programme, there has been murmurings of anti-Scottish bias but Van Rietvelde has seen no evidence of it. "I feel I'm treated exactly the same as all the English players; I've never felt that there has been any bias against me. I definitely think that they want the best for me."
This may be, in part, because Van Rietvelde has improved to a level whereby he has put himself outwith the reach of any discrimination. He is one of the best young men's doubles players in Britain and has been rewarded with a first trip to Asia in January for the top-tier Korean and Malaysian Super Series tournaments. While it may be optimistic to expect him to make any significant impact at that level yet, it is an important step in his long-term development.
With Ellis, Van Rietvelde's sights are firmly set on qualification for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio but, before that, there is the small matter of the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in 2014. Van Rietvelde will split with Ellis for that event, and team up with a Scottish partner, although who that will be has still to be determined.
This, however, does not concern Van Rietvelde. "I'm just focusing on improving as a player," he said. "All I can concentrate on is my development and let the partnerships sort themselves out. I'd like to think that, by 2014, I'll be at a level where I'd be looking to compete for medals."
Van Rietvelde acknowledges with a refreshing air how lucky he is to be a full-time athlete. The pressures of being a professional athlete can result in a loss of appreciation of your situation, but the young Scot's enthusiasm hasn't dulled in the slightest. "It's so important to enjoy it and I really do. I know that I'm so lucky to have this opportunity."
It's an attitude that could take Van Rietvelde a long way.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article