‘Team effort played huge part in Birmingham success’ – David

Thursday 11th August 2022

David Ovens . . . our Chair has been thrilled with the Commonwealth Games performances

Eight will be great! Athletes and coaches deliver best medal tally for 40 years

David Ovens has expressed his thanks to Team Scotland athletes and their coaches for a highly successful Commonwealth Games

And our Chair under-lined his appreciation of the efforts by a number of scottishathletics staff to the Birmingham 2022 effort.

Head of Performance Mark Pollard was Head Coach for the athletics team with Julie Mollison, our Head of Coaching, Development and Talent, in a Team Manager role with Team Scotland.

The tally of eight medals achieved in track, field and wheelchair marathon was the best for Scotland at the Commonwealth Games since ten were won in 1982 in Brisbane.

‘It’s now a few days since the conclusion of the track and field action at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham,’ said David.

‘As Chair of scottishathletics, I had the privilege of being at the Games and witnessing the extraordinary performances of our Scottish athletes.

‘It was a fantastic Commonwealth Games for our athletics team with two golds (Eilish McColgan and Laura Muir; two silvers (Sean Frame and Eilish McColgan); and four bronzes (Samantha Kinghorn, Jake Wightman, Laura Muir and our Women’s 4x400m team (Zoey Clark, Beth Dobbin, Jill Cherry, Nicole Yeargin)).

Commonwealth Games diary . . . a few thoughts from Birmingham

Mark Pollard and Julie Mollison headed up a highly-dedicated staff team at the Games which also featured Alison Grey, Robert Hawkins, Pamela Robson and Allan Scott.

Officials and volunteers in Birmingham: photos by Bobby Gavin

‘The atmosphere in Birmingham was excellent and our athletes were getting great support from the crowds.

‘It goes without saying that our athletes and their individual coaches deserve great credit for what has been achieved (best medal tally for 40 years).

‘There were also 21 Scottish Officials who were selected to officiate and they also merit a great deal of credit for what was an incredible week of athletics at Alexander Stadium (as well as the marathon events).

However, I also want to record my thanks to the team at scottishathletics, who made a really important contribution to the success.

‘I witnessed first hand how hard they were all working to support our athletes and coaches and to deliver timely and insightful communications.

‘This workload was unrelenting and despite the fact that most of that work was ‘behind the scenes’ and out of the public eye, it was a hugely important factor in the success.

‘Well done to the staff team at scottishathletics. And well done to Team Scotland!’

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Reunited again ? but over 800/1500/5000/10000m events! Cannot stress enough to young athletes that everyone's development through sport is so different https://t.co/B0NKgNuBtX

— Laura Muir (@lauramuiruns) August 9, 2022