IT is fair to say that athletics hit an all-time low at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul with the controversial sprint races and the repercussions that followed.

Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson won the men’s 100m in a flash as he covered the track distance in around a picosecond.

He was so fast, the camera barely followed him and he celebrated around 40m in.

Of course, his speed that seemed fanciful at the time was proven to be so and he was stripped of his Gold medal for taking steroids.

The final has since been dubbed the dirtiest in history with many of the 8 runners subsequently being banned.

Sadly, the women’s race appeared to be no better as Florence Griffith-Joyner covered the distance in about a nanosecond and was so far ahead of the field, she was nearly in the Barcelona games four years later.

Almost immediately, she was under suspicion and although she never once failed a drugs test, she retired abruptly from athletics the following year and tragically died at the age of just 38 in 1998.

Her world records at 100m and 200m, both set in 1988 still stand today.

It was, of course a time when Soviet bloc nations were still competing with their state-sponsored drug programmes that saw some female athletes unintentionally transition due to high levels of testosterone.

Most notorious of all were the Soviet sisters Irina and Tamara Press who set 26 world records between 1959 and 1966 in discuss and sprint events. They also won five Olympic gold medals and both retired in 1966 when sex verification was introduced.

Of course, since those dark days when many female athletes would have not bothered to compete due to the unfair competition, athletics like many other sports has really cleaned up its act and we are at the stage when sporting integrity is back and we can believe that many champions are clean and deserving of their honours.

But here in Scotland, the issue of sporting integrity has been cast into doubt after the Scottish Government published guidance for schools that states that transgender girls should be allowed to compete against biological females in sports.

Guidance sent to teachers states that if secondary schools organise PE classes by sex, a transgender pupil “should be allowed to take part within the group which matches their gender identity”.

Non-binary youngsters should be asked “which group they would feel most comfortable with”.

The Supporting Transgender Pupils In Schools guidance was issued last year with a specific section on sports competitions and PE.

The document emerged just days after Boris Johnson said transgender women should not be allowed to compete against biological females in sporting competitions.

Earlier this month, British Cycling suspended its policy on transgender cyclists insisting it was “unfair on all female riders”.

It follows a row in America last month when swimmer Lia Thomas won a 500m freestyle title - making history as the first known transgender athlete to win a US college swimming championship when she took the title in Atlanta.

Before transitioning Ms Thomas had ranked 554th in the men’s 200 yard freestyle and 65th in the 500 yard freestyle.

But the University of Pennsylvania swimmer soared from a mid-500s ranking in men’s competition to one of the top-ranked swimmers in women’s competition.

It is abundantly clear that the Scottish Government is totally out of step with virtually every sports governing body when it comes to transgender females competing against biologically women.

It is no better than the Eastern European communist states attempts to gain sporting accolades through state-sponsored doping.

While there are no illegal substances being approved by Scottish ministers, it is tantamount to state-approved cheating and must be opposed by anyone with a passing interest in sporting integrity.

Where will the next Laura Muir or Katie Archibald come from where they can go from Scottish schools onto the Olympic podium through sheer hard work and dedication if young girls know they may well be competing against basically men they can never hope to beat?

By pandering to a tiny but extremely vocal minority, the Scottish Government is failing virtually every young woman in Scotland.

This should make every one of us take a stand against this utter nonsense and demand that it ends.