AS the clock counts down to the 2015 World Gymnastics Championships in Glasgow - exactly seven months to go tomorrow - the campaign is set to begin in earnest for Scotland's leading gymnasts.
Daniel Purvis, Daniel Keatings and Frank Baines, part of the silver medal-winning Team Scotland men's quintet at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, will be back in action when the British Gymnastics Championships get under way in Liverpool on Friday.
Each will be aiming to get a foot on the first rung of the ladder by claiming a spot in the British team for the European Championships in Montpellier three weeks from now.
But they aren't the only Scots who will be looking to shine next weekend. Among the names to watch is 13-year-old Louise McColgan, who has newly made the step-up from espoir to junior level.
The youngster from Dalry, Ayrshire, is already a prodigious talent as a two-time Scottish national espoir champion. McColgan took the junior all-around title at last month's 2015 Scottish National Gymnastics Championships in Perth and made a clean sweep of golds in the individual apparatus finals.
She started gymnastics at the age of four after dabbling in swimming, horse riding and dancing. "I tried lots of different sports but the minute I walked through the door and saw all the other gymnasts, it just clicked. I knew it was what I wanted to do."
McColgan, who competes for Largs GC, may be diminutive - she stands just 4ft 7in in her stocking soles - but she has no shortage of big ambition.
"Making the British team for the Junior European Championships is what I aspire to and I'm working towards," she says. "There is a possibility I could do that this year and how I perform at the British Championships will help contribute to my chances of selection. Beyond that my goal is to make it to at least two Commonwealth Games and hopefully an Olympics."
Snapping at her heels among the Scottish ranks is Sarah McKenzie (DGC2K), a silver medallist on floor at the 2014 Espoir British Championships in December, alongside Lucy Orr (West Lothian Artistic GC) and Sofia Ramzan (DGC2K).
"It's good to have that level of competition because we all push each other on," says McColgan. "It means I have to keep improving at the same time they are to stay ahead. It's not easy because they are chasing you all the time."
Other Scots heading to Liverpool this week include five-time Scottish senior all-around champion Amy Regan (Largs GC) and 2014 Commonwealth Games team silver medallist Liam Davie (City of Glasgow).
Sam Langstaff, head of performance at Scottish Gymnastics, said that from April the sport's national governing body would begin to implement a new 12-year strategy in a bid to further boost the numbers of home-grown talent performing at world level.
"We will launch new programmes and initiatives which are designed to develop and nurture gymnastics talent," says Langstaff. "High quality coaches are critical to the development of our sport. We have identified a need to invest in our coaching infrastructure and we will begin to roll out new support programmes which develop talented coaches.
"We will continue to invest in elite gymnasts with a greater emphasis on supporting gymnasts further down the performance pathway. The overall aim of our new performance approach is to ensure a greater number of home-grown gymnasts produced in Scotland excelling on the world stage."
She added: "I'm confident that the forthcoming 2015 World Gymnastics Championships being held in Scotland this October will inspire a new generation of gymnastics participants and further enhance our sport across the country."
* The 2015 World Gymnastics Championships will take place at the SSE Hydro in Glasgow from October 23 until November 1. For tickets, visit 2015worldgymnastics.com
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