Scotland has been undergoing much soul searching in pursuit of its next sprint superstar.

For all of the continued excellence of Libby Clegg in the T12 class, it was a source of shame to some that the nation of Allan Wells, Cameron Sharp and Elliot Bunney was unable to muster a single native able-bodied competitor, male or female, to participate in the sprint events at our home Commonwealth Games in Glasgow last summer.

Thankfully, one young man who does at least have a chance to fill the void presented himself at the Sainsbury's International Match at the Emirates Arena on Saturday. His name is Cameron Tindle, he was born in the Borders and, at the age of 16, courtesy of Richard Kilty's disqualification for a false start, this Edinburgh Athletics Club prospect can already claim to have beaten a world champion.

Kilty himself surprised many last year when he took the world indoor 60m crown in Sopot, but when he twitched one time too many under starter's orders on Saturday, not everyone was shocked that this sprightly, unassuming teenager should hold his nerve to run a personal best of 6.92secs over that distance as he finished third, 0.23 behind eventual winner Emmanuel Biron of France.

Guy Learmonth, for example, is one. The Scottish Commonwealth 800m finalist, who finished second behind Robin Schembera of Germany in his own event on Saturday, not only trains most days alongside Tindle in Berwick with coach Henry Gray, but roomed with him in the lead-up to his moment of glory in the east end. The only problem came when his mum was so insistent that her youngster got a good night's sleep that he woke at 6am full of nervous energy.

"He was rooming with me the night before and he was really nervous," said a proud Learmonth. "I have been looking after him for the past two years. He does half my reps and whenever I run with him, even though he might not be trying, I can feel his legs going. I said to Henry that he is blessed with natural leg speed although personally I can see him being more of a 200m/400m athlete as opposed to a short sprinter.

"I am not going to say too much about his potential because I don't want to put too much pressure on him," Learmonth added. "He still has to grow into his body. He has just done his GCSEs, so he has a lot of growing up to do. But he is quick. He has run 21.7secs over 200m already, which puts him just behind Greg Louden and Jamie Bowie. So I'll stick my neck out and say he will be taking their scalps soon. He can dominate Scottish sprinting for a long time."

Even at such a tender age, Tindle's career path has hit many forks in the road. He might have been pursuing a life in rugby union right now had it not been for seven months out with a knee cartilage injury sustained when playing on the wing or full back at county level for Northumbria.

Born in Borders General Hospital to two English parents, he could even have been performing under the English flag had scottishathletics not acted smartly to include him in their Scottish youth ranks. The 16-year-old pupil at Berwick Academy paid tribute to his mentor Learmonth and insisted he wouldn't let all the hysteria go to his head.

"Guy has been very helpful to me," said Tindle. "He's so calm and level-headed. He's had this experience before, so having him around me has been a great help. My plans for the season are, hopefully, to get picked to go to Samoa for the Commonwealth Youth Games towards the end of the season. I'm going to go for both, the 100m and 200m, and see where it takes me.

"I live in Berwick but was born in Borders General Hospital, so that makes me Scottish," Tindle added. "I did have a choice to make between Scotland and England. But I got a youth cap for the Celtic Games in the summer and I've been committed to Scotland ever since."

Now he hopes to emulate the best sprinters in the world, rather than the likes of Chris Ashton or Stuart Hogg. "My idols are obviously Usain Bolt but also all the GB boys like Richard Kilty, Harry Akines-Ayreetey and Adam Gemili," he said. "They're a great inspiration to me because they didn't start off unbeatable, not any of them - but they've made it. Why can't I?"