Giffnock show #SALtogether bond as Laura, Nicole tell us: ‘Thank You’

Tuesday 13th August 2024

Photo by Colin Mearns

The bond between the grassroots athletics in Scotland and our elite athletes is precious.

We have seen numerous examples of that during Paris 2024 – with the likes of Edinburgh AC, Giffnock North AC and Inverness Harriers getting behind their athletes in Olympic finals.

There’s no better example than today and photo above of a ‘Welcome Home’ party for Neil Gourley from Giffnock North AC.

Neil was pictured on TV on Sunday night at the Closing Ceremony – we’re pretty sure he would have been partying with Tom Cruise – and less than 24 hours later he’s playing role model to dozens of young athletes!

As Giffnock put in on Twitter: ‘Neil was a little speechless initially to find 100+ people in his garden but autographs and chats soon followed.’

That is #SALtogether right there (again) !

Photo by Colin Mearns

The connection is further written in the faces of folk photographed at the Edinburgh AC Josh Kerr ‘Watch Party’ and there are other instances, too.

Restrictions by the Olympic Games organisers in the Mixed Zone – where athlete conduct media interviews – unfortuntely made it impossible for us to carry post-race comments from Scottish athletes.

This was definitely a disappointment as we’ve had a superb service of this in recent years from Diamond Leauge and European championships events (with thanks to Stuart Weir).

So we were delighted to jump through a couple of hoops and receive messages as posted below from Laura Muir and Nicole Yeargin.