SOME 24 years on, Derek Redmond's bravery in Barcelona burns brighter than ever. Sports fans of a certain vintage will never forget the 400m runner limping emotionally over the finish line in the arms of his father Jim after snapping his hamstring during the Olympic semi-final. But now a new generation are responding to the images. Shared on Facebook's Olympic page this summer, the footage received 88 million views.
Redmond had left the blocks confidently and was making good headway at 250m before misfortune struck. He began to hobble his way to the finish line, his father dismissing track officials and walking with him all the way to the end. Outgoing US president Barack Obama is just one man who name-checked the moment as a triumph of the human spirit triumphing over adversity, as Redmond, now 51, has relaunched himself as an internationally respected keynote speaker who has addressed some of the world’s leading businesses including Johnson and Johnson, IBM and Lloyds Bank.
Redmond, who famously won world championship relay gold alongside Roger Black, John Regis and Kriss Akabusi in Tokyo in 1991, is guest of honour at tonight's scottishathletics and jogscotland annual awards dinner in Glasgow, and is enthused to be visiting Scotland at a time when the country sent 15 athletes to Rio, the biggest representation in more than a century of Olympic representation.
"I am delighted to be coming to the scottishathletics Annual Dinner in October as ‘Guest of Honour’ and it promises to be a fantastic occasion," said Redmond. "I think the size of the Scottish contingent in Team GB and NI for the Olympics has impressed everyone in athletics in Britain – I understand it is the biggest representation in more than 100 years and that’s really quite something for the sport there.
"To follow that up at the Paralympics with six athletes coming home with seven medals in a great effort overall by ParalympicsGB was another sign of the work that is being done by coaches and bodes well for the sport in Scotland.
"The Annual Dinner will be a great opportunity to honour the Olympians, and Paralympians, but it is not just about the elite – although I have to say your ‘Athlete of the Year’ could be quite a contest!
"It is also about coaches, clubs, volunteers and officials and acknowledging the huge contribution they make on a weekly basis to athletics in Scotland. I am really looking forward to being part of that and Brian Whittle is a close friend from the sport so there may a chance for us to swap a few stories from the past, too."
Behind every world class athlete is some world class advice, and the coaching category will be as keenly contested as any tonight. Andy Young, who took the performance coach award 12 months back for his work with Laura Muir, again will be a contender, as is Andrew Butchart's coach David Easton, Callum and Derek Hawkins' father and coach Robert, paralympic athlete Samantha Kinghorn's coach Ian Mirfin, hill runner Andrew Douglas' coach Sophie Dunnett. Vying for the development coach of the year prize are Willy Russell, of the Banchory & Stonehaven club, and Dudley Walker of Giffnock North athletics club.
"It has been a remarkable year for Scottish athletes," said Young. "To have 15 in Rio was something huge. It is a massive, massive reflection on what all their coaches have done. Across the board, it was just wow. For a nation of five million people to have that many in the team and that many finalists is just fantastic. They are all pretty young too, so there is no reason why they can't just keep making the team next year and the year after that, right through to 2020, which is fantastic for them."
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