Who will be the main runners and riders of 2023?

There will be no Olympic or Commonwealth Games, but nevertheless, there are plenty of major championships and significant sporting dates which will see Scots in the mix for accolades.

Here are some of the sporting highlights coming up:

THE 2023 CYCLING WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

The arrival of the 2023 Cycling World Championships to Scotland is one of the year’s most compelling events.

For the first time, these world championships will combine 13 disciplines – from track to road to BMX to mountain biking – into a jam-packed 11 days for what will be the biggest cycling world championship seen.

What adds to the anticipation is the promise of Scottish success during the event which begins on August 3. At the forefront is likely to be Neah Evans who, after winning her maiden world title just two months ago, will be attempting to successfully defend her women’s points race crown in the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome in Glasgow’s east end.

Also in the hunt for titles on the track are likely to be former world champion Katie Archibald, and multiple world medallist Jack Carlin, who would dearly love his first global title to come on home soil.

Outwith the Scots, the biggest names in world cycling will all be touching down in Scotland for what promises to be a quite remarkable 11 days of sport.

JOSH TAYLOR V JACK CATTERALL

There are few fights quite as highly anticipated in the coming months as Josh Taylor’s rematch with Jack Catterall.

In March, the pair will step into the ring just over a year on from their first clash which saw Taylor controversially awarded victory by the judges to keep a hold of his four light-welterweight world title belts.

Since that bout, the pair have regularly had digs at each other on social media, which have become increasingly bad tempered.

Taylor’s initial plan in the aftermath of defeating Catterall had been to move up a weight category to welterweight. However, after countless jibes by the Englishman that he was running scared of a rematch, Taylor vacated three of his four light-welterweight world titles in order to grant Catterall the fight he has been chasing.

Taylor was far from his best in their first encounter so it will be intriguing to observe both how the Edinburgh fighter manages to improve his performance this time around, as well as how things pan out with so much bad feeling surrounding the bout.

WORLD ATHLETICS CHAMPIONSHIPS

We are being spoiled with the regularity of major athletics championships at the moment.

Three in five weeks last summer was a unique occurrence but already another World Championships is on the horizon.

Spearheading the GB team headed to Budapest in August will likely be Jake Wightman, who will be defending the 1500m title won in such spectacular fashion in Eugene last summer.

On that day, Wightman held off one of the superstars of track and field, Jakob Ingebrigtsen, to become the first Scot to win a world title on the track for 31 years and he will be attempting to back that up with another strong performance on the global stage.

Laura Muir is winning major medals with such regularity these days it is easy to take her success for granted and certainly, she will head into these World Championships with yet another medal in her sights.

Perhaps the most interesting athlete to keep an eye on, though, will be Eilish McColgan, who won four medals across the Commonwealth Games and European Championships last summer.

With the Dundonain in the form of her life, she will be out to make her mark on the global stage.

WORLD CURLING CHAMPIONSHIPS

Such has been the success of Scottish curlers in recent seasons that it is now a surprise when they fail to grab a step on the podium at a major championships.

Following the retirement of Eve Muirhead, the women’s rink has a different look to it this season and so the pressure is on men’s skip, Bruce Mouat, and his team to continue the good form that saw them win Olympic silver and European gold in 2022.

The Men’s World Championships take place in Canada in April and Mouat and his team will be desperate to improve on the silver they won in 2021 and bronze in 2018 and claim their first global major title.

With the 28-year-old improving each year, it is becoming hard to bet against him.

WORLD SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS

Duncan Scott will, once again, be leading from the front when it comes to Scots fighting for medals in the pool.

In July’s World Championships, which will take place in Japan, Scott will be looking to make up for his absence at last year’s event after having to withdraw just days before having recently caught Covid.

Scott may have a bucketful of major championships medals, but he is yet to win a global individual title and at the age of 25, he is now coming into his prime and certainly ready to capture that maiden world title.

Also likely to be heading to Japan and in the mix for medals are Katie Shanahan, the teenager who broke on to the international scene with two Commonwealth medals last summer, and Kathleen Dawson, the Olympic champion who missed the bulk of 2022 through injury and will be looking to establish herself once again as one of the best breaststrokers in the world.