RODGER Harkins has warned the Scottish athletics public not to expect too much, too soon from his crop of youthful prospects despite signs of huge promise.
The sport's performance supremo witnessed a slew of intriguing summer debuts from a number of hopefuls in Sunday's Loughborough International in addition to high-level showings from established names like Lynsey Sharp and Mark Dry.
But with Harkins looking to sew the seeds for a next generation that could peak by the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Australia or the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, he has vowed to play the long game rather than risk an early burnout.
"We brought a lot of youngsters and told them they wouldn't be under any pressure but I think we got six athletes with qualifiers for Commonwealth Youth Games and two for world youth championships," he said. "Ben Greenwood had a Scottish Under-17 record. Cameron Tindle was terrific in the 200m. Emily Dudgeon got a great win. But there were a lot of promising performances.
"We've blooded new faces and we wanted them to enjoy it and learn from it without any expectation. The great thing is they didn't crumble against some high quality opposition. We started a process in Glasgow. Now we're continuing it. But it's a responsibility to manage any expectations and look at the long haul. What we don't want is them to get caught up in the glare and get blown off course."
The annual Loughborough match is the sole outing for a Scotland team scheduled for 2015 but with a goal to break his younger performers out of the domestic scene, Scottish Athletics are prepared to invest in sending additional squads overseas, Harkins confirmed.
"We want to identify some competitions abroad for developing athletes. Where we can maybe take small groups away and help give them the appropriate opportunities, then we will."
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