THE performance director of UK Athletics has heralded the motivational properties of the Commonwealth Games after a record seven Scots were named in the Great Britain team for next month's World Championships in Moscow.

Speaking just moments after announcing who would comprise the 60-strong team for an event that runs from August 10-19, Neil Black praised both scottishathletics and the Institute of Sport amid the recent revival of athletics north of the border. "We've a fantastic working relationship with the guys up there, perhaps the best it's ever been, and when you combine that with the Commonwealth Games coming up and the little bit of extra drive and motivation that brings, it makes for a rich mixture," the Englishman said. "The fact seven Scots are in this team is testament to the fantastic work that is going on up there right now."

The sizeable Scottish contingent is more than double the size of those who represented the country at both the 2009 and 2011 events and is the largest since the inaugural championships in Helsinki 30 years ago. Indeed, had Derek Hawkins not opted to turn down a place in the marathon to focus on his Glasgow 2014 aspirations, it would have eclipsed even the teams of Alan Wells, Yvonne Murray and Liz McColgan.

While the selection of McColgan's daughter Eilish in the steeplechase, and those of 4x400m hurdler Eilidh Child and newly-crowned British 1500m champion Chris O'Hare, were widely expected following a rewarding weekend at the trials, and Susan Partridge's marathon place was confirmed in April, the inclusion of three youngsters was less widely predicted. Laura Muir's bronze medal in the European Under-23 championships in Finland was burnished by her invitation to run the 800m, while Jamie Bowie and Kirsten McAslan were named in their respective 4x400m relay squads. O'Hare and Bowie would be the first Scottish male athletes to compete in the world event for a decade, while McAslan could be the youngest ever, with the women's relay held 16 days short of her 20th birthday.

"We've been talking about a lot of potential and now we are seeing that being translated into performances and this kind of representation in a senior GB team for a World Championships," said Stephen Maguire, scottishathletics' director of coaching, who oversaw the best medal haul at a British Championships for 25 years at the weekend, with a record six golds and 14 medals in total, to add to two at the European Under-23s. "I think this can be inspirational for young athletes around the country. A lot of them have competed against these athletes and there's a knock-on effect as people try to improve their own performances and standards."

Certainly Muir has done in recent months, her progress having been so rapid that a place in Moscow was barely even on her radar at the beginning of the year. Indeed, it was just over a week ago that she met the qualifying standard for the first time. "I'd put it to the back of my mind while I was in Finland," she told Herald Sport. "It was only on Monday night, literally five minutes before I got on to the plane to come home, that I got the phone call telling me.

"I've been concentrating on the 1500m for most of season but I'm actually ranked higher in the 800m. The final is probably out of reach, so I'm going to treat the heat as my final, but every time I race at the moment I seem to get lucky with the field or the conditions and run a pb."

Steph Twell was not so fortunate, though. Having recovered from the injury that caused her to miss the Olympic Games, the British 5000m champion was just six-tenths of a second outside the 'A' standard in Paris earlier this month but has not done enough to convince the selectors that she should be afforded a place in an event in which no other women has been entered.

"I had a long telephone conversation with Steph and explained to her the only way she could have been selected was in round five," said Black, referring to the category that affords him discretion to overlook the failure to meet certain standards. "But for that to happen an athlete has to be considered a potential medal winner in the future and I couldn't justify that in Steph's case."