THE Hampden Roar has evolved into a wave of sound.
The home of Scottish football may have been temporarily converted into an athletics arena - and hasn't the old dear scrubbed up well? - but its capacity to produce a din so ear-splitting that it can rouse sports stars to bigger and better things remains undiminished.
Those who flocked to Glasgow's south side yesterday morning did not discriminate by nationality, giving each individual from Anguila to Zambia a visible lift as they prepared to compete, celebrated their achievements, or trooped off disappointedly. The loudest cheers, however, were undoubtedly reserved for those in Scottish blue and the home athletes responded in kind.
Expectation sits heavily on the shoulders of Laura Muir but she did not wilt under the pressure. The 21-year-old ran in the first heat of the 1500m qualifiers and comfortably coasted into tonight's final in third place with a time of 4:05:19, a raucous din pushing her all the way.
"The noise was something else," she said. "It was like a wave of sound following me around the track. Even walking out, I could hear cheers of, 'come on Laura'. I'm happy with this and now I'll focus [on the final]. I'm really looking forward to it."
It could be her last appearance of these Commonwealth Games. Muir is slated to also compete in the 800m but the insertion of an extra qualifying round that starts tomorrow has now made that unlikely. It would mean her potentially running on five successive days and, with the European Championships set to begin in a fortnight, her coach Andy Young revealed that a strong run in the 1500m would likely see her withdraw from the 800m.
"We're not closing that door," said Young. "But I think if she was happy with her performance [tonight], then she can enjoy it, everyone would be happy and we'd possibly leave it there. By that I mean delivering a good run, because you could run a great race and finish fifth or you could run a good race and finish in the medals."
There was other Scottish success in the sunshine at Hampden, with Raymond Bobrownicki qualifying for tomorrow night's high jump final with a leap of 2.20m. Bobrownicki, originally from Philadelphia in the United States, moved to Scotland in 2008 and ended up returning to track and field largely out of convenience. Now he has a chance of winning a Commonwealth Games medal for his adopted homeland.
"I wasn't doing any athletics when I first came here six years ago," he said. "I'd done some high jump previously in the US but not for a number of years and I was out of the sport completely. Once I got here I lived down the street from the Kelvin Hall. If I wasn't living so close I'm not sure I'd be here now.
"People might say I'm American but my performances are very Scottish. I get goosebumps thinking about the chance of winning a medal. I'm in the shape to do it, it's just about putting the pieces together on the day."
There is an obvious joke about hammer throwers performing at Hampden but Scotland will have three of the proper kind competing in tomorrow night's final after Mark Dry, Andy Frost and Chris Bennett all made the grade.
Glaswegian Bennett, who threw 68.01m to qualify, was particularly taken aback by the reception he and his fellow athletes were afforded having been at Hampden many times before as a football fan. "Aw, listen, I'm not going to lie: it got to me when I was in the tunnel," he admitted. "It scared me a lot. I came down for the women's hammer [on Sunday] and, though it was loud; I didn't think it was that loud when you were out on the field. I was quite overawed. I tried to keep calm but it got a bit messy."
So impressive has the transformation of Hampden been that Bennett hopes it could become a regular thing. "The SFA [Scottish Football Association] are talking about not taking up the lease and, if they left the track here, it would be brilliant. Why can't we have athletics here once a year at Hampden? We've had 45,000 people here for a morning session. It's crazy. It would be lovely to have athletics here every year and if the IAAF want to put hammer in it even better because it's not in the Diamond League."
It wasn't just the Scots who enjoyed the experience. Kirani James, the reigning world and Olympic champion from Grenada, coasted through his 400m heat to reach tonight's semi-finals. "The crowd was great," he said. "I was coming in on the bus and seeing everybody walking to the stadium reminded me of an Alabama [American] football game."
James, remarkably, revealed himself to be fan of Scottish football and Celtic in particular. "I didn't really know much about Hampden as a football stadium. I knew about Celtic; not so much about Rangers. Are Rangers back in the top division? Not yet? Wow. I've been following Scottish teams when they play in the Champions League, although the league is usually a two-horse race. I know the Greek guy who used to play for Celtic, [Georgios] Samaras. I would know a couple of others, too."
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