CONTRARY to popular belief, the men's 5000m and 10,000m will still take place at this year's Commonwealth Games.
Mo Farah may have declined to take part, citing a recent sickness bug, but plenty of other world-class athletes will be running, with the former event one of the highlights of Day One of Glasgow's track and field programme.
One man who is prepared to tackle the job lot of world-class Kenyans such as Caleb Ndiku, Isiah Koech and Moses Kipsiro over 12-and-a-half laps today - and the 10,000m later in the week - is a 22-year-old from Dorking, Surrey called Luke Caldwell. Caldwell competes for Scotland through his Glaswegian father, and few will be prouder to take their seat at Hampden today than his grandfather Ronnie, who at the ripe old age of 92 and in failing health has never been able to see him perform. This is because Caldwell has spent the last two seasons learning his trade on a track and field scholarship in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
"I have lived in Surrey all my life, but all my dad's family are from Glasgow," Caldwell said. "My grandad will be here and I hope he is a very proud man. I probably won't see him before the race but I will afterwards.
"He is quite old and unfortunately not really able to get out and see me race in other places. In fact he has never seen me race before, so it is great for me to do any race with him watching, let alone in his home town with 40,000 people watching on the biggest stage I have been on."
Caldwell would have loved the chance to rub shoulders with Farah, who also trains out in the United States in Oregon, but at least it is one less athlete likely to be ahead of him at the finish.
With personal bests of 13.29 secs in the 5000m and 28.59 secs in the 10,000m any place in the top dozen places would be sufficient reward for a young man in his first major championships.
"Mo gets a bit more press coverage than me!" said Caldwell. "But the reason I look up to him is that clearly he was a great athlete already but he looked at himself in the mirror and said 'I want to be better'. He knew he wanted to win medals at major championships and he did what was necessary.
"He moved out to the US, made big personal sacrifices, and that's what I admire. That is what I am looking to do, I am not quite on that level just yet, but I am looking to find an environment where I can take the next step. Albuquerque has been so good for me, and I have a lot of ideas from having been out there for the last two years.
"The 5000m and 10,000m at the Commonwealth Games are world-class events and you have to be a world-class athlete just to be contending for the medals, so I can't realistically, at this moment at least, regard that as my aim.
"This is my first senior championships, so I am not going to set myself any hard and fast goals so far as placings go. I just want to be competitive, be with the group when the race really starts with a few laps to go.
"It would have been really tough for Mo anyway. He has been away doing the marathon so the Kenyans and the other top athletes in the field would have been chomping at the bit to test him."
Like 1500m runner Chris O'Hare, who has decided to base himself in Boston even at the end of his college scholarship, Caldwell seems likely to continue to train Stateside.
He lists one of his hobbies as playing the guitar, but the quietly-spoken Caldwell isn't taking it upon himself to entertain the whole camp just yet. He may not be the main attraction today but he is determined to make the most of his time in the limelight.
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