Scots won nine medals at the Aviva trials in Birmingham, but only two titles, Lynsey Sharp (800m) and Eilish McColgan (steeplechase). Despite beating the four women ranked ahead of her this year, Edinburgh's Sharp remains short of the Olympic A standard which guarantees selection. Indeed, as it stands this morning, just two Scots (Eilidh Child, 400m hurdles, and McColgan) are sure of an individual Olympic athletics place.
The required performance must be done by midnight on Sunday. Sharp needs improve her best by 1.27 seconds and hopes to achieve this at the European Championships in Helsinki.
Lee McConnell, third in the 400m trial, also needs the A standard, an improvement of 0.76sec on what she has run this year. She contests the individual one-lap event in Hesinki, but can be sure of relay selection whatever happens.
Steph Twell, Scotland's Commonwealth bronze medallist, passed a fitness test on Monday and also chases a second qualifying standard at 5000m. If she fails, like McConnell, she may be granted an individual place at selectors' discretion. Both are ranked third in the UK and up to three per event may be chosen.
Mark Dry (hammer) has achieved the B standard four times but was second in the trial. Alex Smith, his only rival, needs one more B standard before midnight on Sunday. If he achieves this, Dry is unlikely to be chosen, unless he throws something exceptional in Helsinki. Only one B standard athlete per nation is allowed.
This is all far from encouraging for Scotland. With Glasgow 2014 less than two years away, the critical mass of quality to suggest we can impact at a home Games is simply not evident.
A reality check is provided by a look at where Scotland's only two guaranteed Olympians are in world terms. Child is currently 11th in the world at 400m hurdles (and third in the Commonwealth) with McColgan 34th in the steeplechase (10th in the Commonwealth, eight of whom are Kenyan). The world ranking this year for the other Scots in contention for Olympic places are: Twell 29th, Dry 58th, Sharp 62nd, and McConnell 88th.
It's not all gloom. At 20, Greg MacLean has improved in the pole vault by half a metre in two years to take silver at the weekend with a Scottish record of 5.35 metres. Similar progress over the next two years would make him a medal candidate. The likes of Chris O'Hare (cruelly denied Euro 1500m selection), Guy Learmonth, Hen Paxton and Emily Stewart all show promise.
Four Scots – Tom Holligan (4 x 100m), Emily Dudgeon (800m), Nick Percy (discus) and Laura Muir (3000m) – were named yesterday in the GB team for the World Junior Championship in Barcelona next week. Yet neither Muir nor Dudgeon are even in Scotland's 41-strong 2014 Games squad. A slew of those in that squad have come nowhere near the level of performance this pair have achieved this year.
And only after having achieved the Olympic B standard were McColgan and Sharp belatedly added to that squad after a campaign in these columns. All of which raises questions over the efficiency of talent identification and support for Scottish competitors. Sharp, who graduated with honours in law last week, has experienced significant financial hardship as a result.
Her mother Carol, a former Scottish internationalist at the same distance, said yesterday: "The system does not work. The family is wiped out financially. I have down-sized twice, from a four-bedroom house to a two-bedroom flat, and if Lynsey does not get enough support I will downsize again."
Small wonder we question the vast investment by UK Sport in recent years, the explosion of sport administration, not to mention the value of proliferation of so-called experts advising those who administer and determine where those funds go.
Britain's much-hyped Olympic potential? Peel back the Union flags draped around those who qualified for selection at the trials and you might find a health warning. Only four UK athletes are ranked in the top three in the world. Heptathlete Jessica Ennis is No.1. So are Mo Farah (5k) and Greg Rutherford (long jump). Robbie Grabarz (high jump) is third. In the 20 women's events, nobody else is in a medal position and only five more are in the top 10. And only four other men are in the top 20.
We congratulate the two Scots in the British Olympic women's football team announced yesterday. However, their Olympic places may come at a price, for their inclusion reignites Scottish Football Association concern over the potential threat to future Scottish World Cup participation.
This is no different from inclusion of Scottish men in a GB Olympic team and our two best female players now face possibile exclusion from future national teams. No matter what posturing the SFA may make, that's unlikely to impact if FIFA take issue with Scotland's World Cup status.
The pair, Ifeoma Dieke and Kim Little, have 160 caps between them. Little plays with Arsenal Ladies and netted her first international hat trick for Scotland earlier this month. The price of Olympic selection may be higher for Little, an Aberdonian. Dieke, who was brought up in Cumbernauld from the age of three, holds Nigerian and US passports so would be eligible to play for either country. And Glasgow City's Jane Ross, who is a reserve, might even be sanctioned without making an Olympic appearance.
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