As he prepares to race in the 200 metres at the Scottish Schools Athletics Championships today Bahamas-bound Adam Clayton can reflect on the extraordinary difference the past 12 months has made to his sporting life.

This time last year the 16-year-old, a keen and promising footballer who had played as a winger in an under-17 Scottish Cup semi-final with Harmony Row, was taking part in a national outdoor championship for the first time, having had a rather mixed experience at the Scottish Schools Indoor Championships a few weeks earlier, soon after being persuaded by a school friend that his natural speed

The youngster was such a novice when he turned up there that his maths teacher and coach Ryan McAllister had to teach him how to perform a crouch start in the warm-up area at the event. Nor did his naivete end there, resulting in the most unfortunate of exits from the competition.

“I came second in my heat, but it was my first ever competition and I thought you had to win it to get to the next round, so I just went home and I was disqualified,” Clayton recalled.

He is laughing as he says so now and with good reason because any disappointment is now a distant memory after the events of the last few weeks.

Selected to make his Scotland debut in the 4x100m at last month’s Loughborough International he was given a late individual entry into a guest 100m race and found himself up against former European and World Indoor champion Dwain Chambers.

Unbeknown to Clayton Scottish Athletics officials had pushed for him to get the chance because with nine already selected, places had become available for two more athletes to join the Scotland squad for this season’s Commonwealth Youth Games in the Bahamas if they could achieve the qualifying times and he duly slashed his personal best from 11.1 secs to 10.73 second to subsequently be offered that stunning unexpected bonus.

“I think the pace definitely helped,” he said.

“Against people like that you don’t want to get left behind.”

In the grander scheme of things that would have happened to any chance he had of becoming a sprinter had he left the switch of sports much longer and he realises he has been fortunate, such is the focus on football in Scottish state schools in particular.

“It’s not something I would have considered, but it’s one of the best things I’ve done in my life. Athletics has taken over. Sometimes I miss football but I love athletics,” he said.

That is a subject that has frustrated athletics aficionados for many years, Menzies Campbell, the Olympic sprinter turned politician, having observed when advocating talent transfer schemes ahead of Scotland’s hosting of the 2014 Commonwealth Games: ““There has always been really quick footballers and rugby players, but more rugby players have adapted to athletics than from soccer. I don’t know if that is down to opportunity, maybe when they were at school or younger. But there has to be quick football players out there. I don’t understand why they wouldn’t give themselves a chance and be happy with, or settle for obscurity?”

Clayton admits to drawing inspiration from Adam Gemili, the English sprinter who was on Chelsea books for several years, but won the World Junior Championships and took part in the Olympics in his native London as a 19-year-old in 2012, the year he decided to switch to athletics full-time.

Now his coach and teacher is hoping that what has happened to Clayton will in turn persuade others to consider their options.

“Obviously in our country football is a huge sport, but when you look at how well Scottish athletics is doing at the moment there are so many doing well across the world,” said McAllister.

“There’s a lot of athletes out there who are setting a high standard for the youngsters.”

The Scottish Schools Athletics Association Track and Field Championships got underway at Grangemouth yesterday and conclude today. The Commonwealth Youth Games take place in the Bahamas next month.