THE fastest rugby winger in Britain turned out last Saturday for
Scottish fourth division side Livingston, and scored a try with his
first touch.
This may be good news for rugby, but not for Scottish athletics, as it
heralds the end of Elliot Bunney's track career.
The former European junior 100 metres champion, the most prolific
sprint title winner in Scottish athletics history, is on the way out at
27 -- just a year older than the age at which Linford Christie won his
first championship medal.
''I hate to use the word retirement, but it's very doubtful if I will
ever race again,'' said Bunney.
0 His life has turned upside down since returning from the
Commonwealth Games last month, as he has faced the reality of life after
athletics.
Besides playing his first rugby match in more than a decade, Bunney
has taken on greater responsibility in his job as athletics development
organiser with West Lothian District Council. This week he began a
leisure management course, and yesterday he moved into a new home in
Mid-Calder with his fiancee, international 400m runner Mel Neef.
Most telling of all, he speaks of the ''mental relief'' at abandoning
the weekly athletics regime of six training sessions which helped him
win relay medals in Olympic, European, and Commonwealth championships,
plus 23 Scottish titles.
''That's been replaced by two rugby training nights, two weight
sessions in the gym, and a match,'' he says. Plus the kind of Saturday
social life that he sampled only with occasional frenetic enthusiasm
during the previous decade.
''If I prove to be useless at rugby, I might go back to athletics. But
I can't see it.''
The omens for a return are not favourable. As well as pace, he has
sound hands and-- by all accounts -- a relish for the tackle that may
speedily pass him to greater heights.
Bunney is quick to point out that today's rugby match against Lismore
will be only his second since third-year schooldays, as a stand-off at
Bathgate Academy.
''I might be rubbish,'' he says in typical self-effacing fashion. ''I
have got so much to learn. I just want to enjoy it, and see what
happens. I don't want to make predictions as to how good I might be.
''I know Nigel Walker has done it, but it is pretty difficult to pick
up the game after 12 years, and go on to play at the highest level.''
Walker is the former international hurdler now capped by Wales. But
his status as Britain's fastest winger (best legal 100m time, 10.47) is
eclipsed now that Bunney has picked up the ball.A fastest time of
10.20sec. earned him the title of the Bathgate Bullet, sharp enough lead
out of the blocks for the UK squad which won Olympic relay silver in
Seoul.
There would be a certain sense of history if the man who surpassed
Eric Liddell's record of five successive Scottish sprint victories were
to emulate Liddell by playing rugby for Scotland.
''I had thought about doing the New Year sprint, now that it's open,''
said the Edinburgh Southern Harrier. ''But I decided against it. A third
Commonwealth Games isn't a bad note to end on.
''There is no way I could do the Scottish Athletics League for
enjoyment. I could not face being thrashed by people who would never
beat me if I prepared properly.
''It is very hard to let go. Training became a way of life. When you
run 10.20 at 19, you think the world is at your feet.
''Injuries did not help, but I have never run any faster than I did
then, and that's dispiriting. I now have to recognise that I won't ever
win an individual championship medal.
''It is time I began to live like a normal person, thought about a
mortgage, qualifications, and a career.
''I trained harder for these last Commonwealths than I ever did in my
life, but the standard in the 100 has rocketed. I got to the final
twice, but was leapfrogged this time.
''Drugs? I despise those who take them. You just have to get on with
it. There is no use pointing the finger without evidence, even though
you know what's going on. But I really am naive. My coach, Bob Inglis,
identified Ben Johnson as a steroid cheat when he beat me in 1986 -- I
refused to believe him!''
By resisting a fearsome temptation, watching while the less scrupulous
would squat, muscle-pumped beside him, then overhaul him, Bunney
deserves great credit.
And on a wing and a prayer, we hope his graceful running has yet to
become just a memory.
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