NEVER in AAA Championship history have Scots owned the podium at the mile or 1500 metres, but it's possible in Birmingham tomorrow. Four of the six fastest men at the World Championship trials are Scots, and with no pre-selection or exemptions, everyone must race. Provided they have the qualifying standard, the first two are selected.

Despite a perceived golden age when Seb Coe, Steve Ovett, and Steve Cram all held the world 1500m and mile records, UK quality below them was shallow. When Coe and Ovett won Olympic 1500 and 800m gold in 1980, 12th place in the UK 1500m rankings (which had just two Scots) was 3min 41.4sec. Twelfth on today's start list for the heats at what is now called the UK Championships, is 3:39.00, and 19 British athletes this year are faster than 3:41.4. Five are Scots.

The UK rankings 15 years ago had just eight inside 3:41.4, and in 2007 there were 10 – only one of whom was Scottish. There was just one Scot in the 1980 top 10, none in 1990, and only one in both 2000 and 2010. Decline has finally been reversed.

The current UK rankings are led by former European junior champion Jake Wightman with 3:34.17 – third on the Scottish all-time list. He's just ahead of Mo Farah, who does not run today. Next is European indoor and outdoor bronze medallist Chris O'Hare (3:34.35), then defending three-times champion Charlie Grice (3:35.72), and newly-crowned NCAA champion Josh Kerr (3:35.99). Scotland's Olympic 5000m finalist Andrew Butchart (3:37.58) is seventh, and "does not rule out" the 1500 heats just 75 minutes after the 5k final. Fifteenth is Neil Gourley and the Glasgow man's 3:40.52 is quicker than Coe on his only AAA title victory, in 1989.

The first three Scots are among only four in today's field with the qualifying mark of 3:36.00. Leading GB contenders often avoid one another. Despite defying prevailing amateur rules, promoters induced Coe and Ovett to race 1500m only once outside their two Olympic finals.

So savour a race which could herald the return of halcyon days and begin writing out the era defined by Frank Clement, Graham Williamson, and John Robson.

All were world class and never afraid to race. Bellahouston Harrier Clement held the UK 1500m and mile records. He surrendered the latter to Ovett, but recaptured it, holding off Robson by just a tenth of a second. Clement twice won the Emsley Carr Mile, and the World Student Games title (52.2 for the final lap). He was fifth in the 1976 Olympics, first Scottish finalist since another Bellahouston man, John McGough, took silver 70 years earlier. A Govan postman, McGough paid his own way to Athens in 1906 [correct].

Robson, Clement and Williamson swept the podium at the 1978 UK championship, a construct which existed briefly in the late 1970s but failed to supplant the AAA trials event. Robson's Scottish 1500m best (3:33.83) is almost 38 years old. He clocked that immediately behind Ovett when the Englishman missed Coe's world best by just a 10th of a second. The Kelso athlete also won Commonwealth and European indoor bronze, and was on the podium four times at these trials without winning.

In 1979, when Coe broke the world mile best (3:49.0), Robson and Williamson were close behind, fifth and seventh. Williamson won European junior gold that year, and the World Student crown in Mexico City. In his only Commonwealth Games the Springburn Harrier was fourth. His Scottish mile record (3:50.64) will be 35 years old this month.

Wightman's surge on the final lap at the Oslo Diamond League saw him overtake World indoor silver medallist David Strang, Clement, and O'Hare, moving to third all-time in Scotland behind Robson and Williamson.

He showed cool disregard for rivals' pedigree: Kenya's World silver medallist Elijah Manangoi; Poland's European champion Marcin Lewandowski; Norway's Henrik Ingebrigtsen who has won European gold, silver, and bronze; 15-times Diamond League winner Silas Kiplagat from Kenya; Morocco's African champion, Fouad El Kaam; Czech World indoor champion Jakub Holusa; former World indoor champion Ayanleh Souleiman of Djibouti; and Abdelaati Iguider, Morocco's former Olympic bronze medalist and fifth in Rio. Plus Grice, another Rio Olympic finalist and former European under-23 runner-up.

Wightman was educated at Fettes while his father was ceo of scottishathletics. Dad was a 2:13:17 marathon runner, and his mum, Susan Tooby, was sixth behind Liz McColgan in the 10k at the 1986 Commonwealth Games. She and her twin, Angela (10k bronze in '86) bet McColgan she would cry on the podium. Liz didn't.

The $10,000 Jake collected in Oslo more than makes up for the lost wager.

Though any of the leading three Scots could take the title tomorrow, my money is on O'Hare. He was less than a second behind Olympic champion Matt Centrowitz when they raced in May. First Scot to win this title for 41 years in 2013, he has been runner-up to Grice in the past two years but has posted his fastest 1500 and mile times this year. Grice may face uncomfortable questions in a tactical race.

Kerr, interviewed elsewhere on these pages, may ultimately prove best of them all if he remains healthy.

Seven Scots have won the AAA and UK championship mile and 1500m titles on 10 occasions: 1898 and '89 Hugh Welsh; 1904, '05, '06 John McGough; 1911 Douglas McNicol; 1922 Duncan McPhee; 1958 Graham Everett; 1972 Peter Stewart; 2013 Chris O'Hare. And a further 24 silver and bronze medals since the championships began in 1880.