In the running for glory

In addition to the duties of tending to her eight-month-old son Ethan, McConnell has been lined up as part of BBC Scotland's TV and radio commentary teams and will also write a newspaper column.

Having already picked up a couple of Commonwealth medals, including a silver in the individual 400m in Manchester in 2002, she says, in reference to her inability to train enough this time around to reach peak condition, that she wasn't prepared to go along "just for the tracksuit". In a sense that isn't strictly correct: only this week she was donning Commonwealth Games garb as she completed a stretch of the Queen's Baton relay past her old stomping ground of Netherlee Primary School.

McConnell was schooled just a 1500m run through Cathkin Park from Hampden, at Holyrood Secondary School on Glasgow's south side, and she came close to completing her career journey there this summer.

Although she returned to training just nine weeks after giving birth to Ethan, she eventually bowed to the inevitable, unable to sacrifice the requisite time away from her child to make herself competitive. But when one door closes, another one opens. Unlike some athletes, McConnell has always had a liking for the off-field elements of her job, and had already taken tentative steps into the worlds of media and after-dinner speaking. The arrival of the world to Glasgow this summer has merely seen her accelerate her ambitions.

"I came to terms with the fact I wasn't going to be participating quite quickly," McConnell said. "I accepted it and learned that it allowed me to look at the Games in a different light, and use it as a springboard to potentially something else.

"Ultimately, I think that if I had been prepared to give up some time with Ethan then I could have been competing at the Games but I don't think I would have been at my best and I had always said from the start, that, with or without having had a baby, I wouldn't have wanted to be at the Commonwealth Games and not been able to compete at my best. I have already won medals at the Commonwealth Games and I didn't want to be there for the tracksuit. Maybe with another few months it would have been more realistic for me."

Asked to don her pundit's hat and assess the main home hopes for a medal, it doesn't take long for McConnell to alight on the name of a woman who she used to pass the baton to. In the 400m hurdles, an event which McConnell also dallied with long enough to win a Commonwealth bronze medal in Melbourne, Eilidh Child's best season appears to be coming at the right time for the 27-year-old from Perth.

Child's 54.39secs makes her second favourite on paper, with the main threat to Scotland's first female gold medal on the track since Yvonne Murray in Victoria 20 years ago coming from Kaliese Spencer of Jamaica, whose 53.41secs makes her the fastest woman in the world over the distance this year.

"I think if Eilidh doesn't come back with a medal then she will be disappointed," says McConnell. "She finished second in the last Commonwealth Games so I think she will be looking to do as well if not better this time around. The thing with the hurdles is that a lot can go wrong. All Eilidh wants to do - and all she will do - is focus on her race and if she does that it will be enough. She can't do anything about Kaliese Spencer other than put her under pressure, come into that home straight fighting with her, with the crowd willing her on."

Another couple of young women in a hurry in the middle distance events - albeit pitted against fearsome Kenyan opposition - are Laura Muir and Lynsey Sharp. The latter, daughter of Cameron Sharp, a Commonwealth gold medallist from Edmonton in 1978, is a close third in the Commonwealth rankings in the 800m. McConnell, meanwhile, is an expert witness on Muir whose 4.00.07secs by the numbers at least should be at least good enough for a bronze. The 21-year-old, a prodigy who used to share McConnell's Kelvin Hall training base, is versatile enough to double up in the 800m should her schedule allow.

"I don't know Laura quite so well as Eilidh but we used to both train at the Kelvin Hall so I used to see her train on quite a few occasions," said McConnell. "She smashed her PB again at the Diamond League in Paris recently, and is definitely a world-class athlete on paper. She seems a confident young girl, and while she has only been in the public eye for the last year or so, she has always been there, good at a variety of distances, versatile enough to run a good 400m time and anything up to 5000m.

"She is still only young, though, so she needs to make sure that she tactically gets it right. What her tactics will be, only she will know."

Team Scotland's selection criteria insists that a top-eight finish is possible, which throws many others into medal contention. Battling some talented Kenyans and Austalians in the steeplechase will be Eilish McColgan and Lennie Waite, while Chris O'Hare does likewise in the men's 1500m. Possibly more likely to spring a surprise are a few field athletes, such as Jax Thoirs, who on paper is ranked third in the Commonwealth in the pole vault. Mark Dry has chances in the hammer, as does Allan Smith in the high jump.

"The field eventers always seem to catch you by surprise just because they don't get the same kind of media coverage but there are quite a few who have the potential to win a medal on the day," said McConnell.

With the world arriving on Scotland's shores, it wouldn't do to be overly parochial. Usain Bolt and Shelley-Anne Fraser-Pryce may only compete in the sprint relays, and Yohan Blake won't be there at all, but the likes of Kemar Bailey-Cole and Nickel Ashmeade are running better this year anyway.

"People keep going on about the fact that Usain Bolt and Yohan Blake aren't in the 100m but it is time we started looking at the guys who are going to be there, and not dwelling on the ones who aren't," she said. "These guys are good, running sub 10 seconds week in week out. All the 100m, 200m races are going to be great. It is world-class athletics on Glaswegians' doorsteps so we should embrace it and enjoy it. I am pretty sure everyone will."

McConnell, able to move out of her own personal bubble, and take it all in, certainly will. There will be particular interest in the phenomenon that is David Rudisha in the 800m while Mo Farah will be cheered like an honourary Scot in the 5000m and 10,000m.

Away from the track, she will follow the fortunes of Michael Jamieson, another Red Sky Management athlete, and Robbie Renwick, in the pool, and the likes of David Millar and Bradley Wiggins in the road race cycling.

"It is great to be able to see some of it, because as an athlete you tend to see absolutely none of it," said McConnell. "You are usually tucked up in your hotel room, so focused on what you are doing. For instance, as a family we are actually going to the mountain biking, even though it is something I know nothing about. If, that is, I can fit it into my schedule."