ANDY YOUNG, who steered Laura Muir to fifth in the World Championship 1500 metres final is looking for a sponsor in the hope of establishing an endurance academy. He believes this will let him devote more time to coaching the Glasgow veterinary student who has emerged as a potential Olympic medal contender next year.

Muir's performance in Beijing was one better than the experienced Eilidh Child, and equalled the hurdler's fifth place at the World event two years ago – the best World outdoor performance by a home-trained Scot since Liz McColgan's 10k victory in 1991.

Young is now planning the programme which he hopes may put Muir on the Olympic podium in Rio de Janeiro while holding down his day job as an Active Schools Co-ordinator. Muir's work as a student on a high-powered academic course is the least of his problems. He is less than complimentary about scottishathletics.

"As it stands now, our Olympic preparations are severely compromised," he says. "I'm holding down a full-time job while coaching Laura and several others. That should be a full-time job in itself. If it wasn't for the great support from a forward-thinking director of education in Glasgow who recognises the importance of physical activity in young people's development and lives, I simply would not have been able to provide Laura with the required support.

"I need proper time to dedicate to her. We have got the facilities here, but based on last winter's experience, we may have nowhere to train. It's embarrassing when you compare to other countries. If you look at the athletes in that Beijing final, I think all the others have full time coaches, being paid four or five times my salary."

He cites US athlete Shannon Rowbury, on the Oregon Project with Mo Farah. "Look at the resources they have: coach Alberto Salazar, his assistant, five or six full-time coaches, including strength and conditioning, for some 20-odd athletes. I have to pick up all five of their roles on a voluntary basis while doing a day job. And the likes of Tirunesh Dibaba can go off and train anywhere in the world.

"We are constrained by Laura's course, which is fine, but when she is free, I possibly can't get time off. Scottish sport, scottishathletics, is still treating this like the amateur thing back in the 1980s, when they had no resources. Yet now there are millions in lottery funding for high performance.

"We have a cold climate and have built world-class facilities which we cannot use."

He is disappointed at the frequency with which the Emirates is unavailable. "Athletes have next to nowhere to train. If we have a bad winter again, we are absolutely shafted. It's not like the '80s. There is really good money now from the lottery and government.

"We were promised we'd lose out for only six weeks at the Emirates, from October to March. But the last two years have been a nightmare – broken promises about access. I have asked for their input, but scottishathletics has not exactly stepped up to the plate.

"The Emirates track is a fantastic facility – brilliant – no different to training outdoors. But last year, Glasgw University tried to book it from mid-September to mid-December, twice a week. We got three days' access in three months.

"Things that should take a few hours seem to take days to de-rig. We were promised it would be in athletics mode from October 1 to March 31, yet we can hardly get near the place. One coach wanted to demonstrate before the TV cameras when the Davis Cup was on. You will struggle to find any coaches who are happy.

"It appears that athletes are insignificant customers. You don't know what is happening from one week to another.

"Basketball was supposed to played in the hall next door. Then it moved to the main arena. It takes days to set up and shut down. Athletics is thrown out for a two-hour game. It was designed to have the court in the middle of the arena. You could still use the track. But we can't. We're told season ticket holders have to sit closer to the action.

"We have occasions when there is no alternative training venue, with Crownpoint out of commission and Scotstoun closed because of rugby. When it snowed, they cleared it off the grass at Scotstoun and dumped it on the track. We'd to take a big group to Nethercraigs where there is no cover whatsoever, except football changing rooms.

"At Scotstoun, they shout abuse on the Tannoy if I step on the grass. I jog across the grass in flat training shoes, to give split times. Compare that 30 rugby players in studs! They make athletes feel fourth or fifth-class citizens.

"I've appealed to scottishathletics without success – a complete lack of interest. Then they wonder why everyone ups and leaves to train outside the country."

Young says he had to turn away two international athletes in the past couple of years - now lost to the sport. "They were at a similar age to when Laura came to me . . . when Laura arrived at uni nobody would have pegged her to be among very best in the world within four years."

Beijing has given her tremendous confidence. Muir said: "It was as hard as it's ever going to get: world record-holder, current world champion, former world champion, fastest ever American, European champion, Commonwealth champion, world junior champion."

Despite that, she won't be seduced into dreaming of Rio medal prospects. "I've been improving at such a rate, it's difficult to set a target, and a year is such a long time. You don't know who is going to do what. All we can focus on is me being in the best shape and not worry about others. But If I don't make that final, I will be disappointed, because that is the level I am at now."

She says if her coach's academy proposals find a backer, it would certainly help her. "I know Andy does a lot of work in the evenings, because he is working. There are so many areas where it would free up time and make it easier."

Her several experiences of altitude training this year have been a success. She is investigating a possible placement to train in South Africa in December. She has two weeks on placement in Fife starting on Monday, but says, "There are some vet placements on the game reserve. It depends whether I can set something up. Elephants would be a bit of a change from cats and dogs. Exotic veterinary territory is very competitive, but even a few weeks would be a great opportunity."

Further altitude camps are planned in the spring, if studies permit, and possibly six weeks in the Pyrenees, but unless a backer is found for Young's project, he is unlikely to be able to go.

Lynsey Sharp's second place in the Diamond League in Zurich on Thursday, beating world champion Marina Arzamasova, was "some consolation" she said, for missing a Beijing final place. She flew yesterday from Switzerland to Berlin where she will have her last race of the season on Sunday.

Sharp's winter programme will focus on building sprint speed, and possibly racing indoors. She is ready to flit between South Africa, Holland, and the US. Unlike Muir, she will not be dabbling with altitude.