For more than 20 years former international athlete Rhona McLeod has been analysing elite sport as a journalist but she is now having to do so from a very different perspective – as a mum.
A sprint hurdler and long jumper who represented Scotland for seven years in the eighties and nineties, she has dealt with some of the toughest characters in the sporting world, but none of that serves as preparation for being the parent of two promising young athletes who are competing directly with one another in those same disciplines as Scotland’s top two ranked under-15 sprint hurdlers.
At 14, Briagha is almost exactly a year older than Coirilidh and while, for a variety of reasons, they had not met directly until this year’s Scottish under-15 indoor championships – big sister winning the title by three hundredths of a second – it was a particularly uplifting family moment, but not because of the outcome.
“I think the time I was most proud of them was the Scottish Indoor Championships in February,” Rhona recounted, as we chatted at Scotstoun just a couple of days before this weekend’s Scottish Age Group Athletics Championships at the same venue.
“As usual they went through all the various rounds and didn’t race against each other, but they qualified for the final with the first and second fastest times in each round, so we knew it was going to be tight and this was going to be the first time they’d ever raced against each other and you’re just dreading it. Normally I’m very vocal, but I couldn’t shout for either I was so nervous for both of them and when they were warming up for the final I wondered whether they would go in different directions and warm up separately. Instead Briagha just put her arm round her sister’s shoulder, behaved as a big sister would and said ‘This is your first Scottish national final as an under-15, let’s go up here where it’s nice and quiet and do our drills.’ They did everything together, then shook each other’s hands, went out, did the race, couldn’t have been closer. Briagha pipped it because Coirilidh dipped a wee bit too soon, a wee bit of an error and at the end they just flung their arms around each other and had a big hug.”
Which speaks to the values she and husband Bruce consider most important in terms of their daughters’ development. They have been encouraged to remain involved with the likes of school netball and hockey teams, dance clubs and school shows, as well as their academic studies. Two nights a week are devoted to athletics training under the watchful eye of Chris Baillie, a 110 metres hurdles silver medallist at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne 11 years ago, a third if there is no competition at the weekend with the emphasis on what they are doing rather than how much.
“When I look back at what I achieved I could have worked harder and I see now that it’s about quality and not quantity. So although the girls only train really twice a week we make sure it’s a really good quality session,” said Rhona. “I got injured when I was 23 and that was what finished my career and I now see that was so young and I really want them, if they want to have a career in athletics, to be able to sustain it, which means not absolutely hammering when they’re 13 or 14. While it’s very nice to win medals it’s not about what happens just now.”
It helps enormously that the girls get on and work well together.
“It’s certainly been fantastic to have them train together. Because they’re so close in age and so close in standard and they’re good pals, it’s just made for the best competitive environment in training,” said Rhona.
“They’ve also got the other girls in the squad. There’s Katie Sharkey who’s a year older than Briagha and then there’s Jade Henry, who’s a year older than Katie, so they’re spread across four years and each of them are
Scottish champions for their age.”
However, even that does not immunise the family from the potential perils of dealing with sibling rivalry.
“I can remember we were coming back from a competition and Coirilidh had got a really fast time in her race and Briagha had not got such a fast time in hers and in the car on the way back we felt we couldn’t really congratulate Coirilidh because it would be like a dagger through the heart to Briagha,” said Rhona.
That experience was enough for her to sift through her contact book for an expert view on the matter, checking with the mother of Scottish sport’s two most famous sons. Judy Murray proffered sound advice, cautioning simply: “You can never not praise the one who wins.”
Rhona and Bruce may be spared another head to head between their daughters this weekend because Coirilidh is nursing niggling hip problems associated with a growth spurt, so may not be able to compete at Scotstoun, but as they all cheer her big sister on it seems they may be destined to go through the dilemmas faced by the likes of the Murrays and the parents of triathlon’s Brownlees brothers for some years to come.
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