Track legend Steve Cram believes Laura Muir will not be the finished article at Glasgow 2014, but that doesn’t mean she won’t have a successful Commonwealth Games.
The former World champion middle-distance runner was on hand in Poland a few weeks ago to give the Kinross-shire runner a shoulder to cry on when she crashed out of the World Indoors in the heats.
Cram, who has been appointed to an advisory role with UK Athletics in a move which looks sure to benefit Scottish endurance athletes, is hopeful that the experience will prove to be an invaluable lesson for the 20-year-old.
But he doesn’t want the public to heap too much pressure on the Dundee Hawkhill Harrier at her home games this summer.
The BBC TV presenter said: “Laura Muir is a great little competitor. But she is a developing athlete and she still has a long way to go.
“What people have to do is be patient and allow her to develop. It’s a massive year but whatever she does will move her on and make her better. People should bear that in mind.
“I don’t think Scotland will see Laura Muir at her best this summer, although she will have a chance of doing well. It should be clear to everyone that at the moment we’re talking about potential.”
Cram added: “The World Indoors in Sopot taught her a few lessons. She was very upset and there was a few of us outside the arena afterwards trying to console her.
“I said to her that day in Poland: ‘You will learn from this’. And it might be a good thing because she’ll come into the Commonwealth Games more aware of what it’s all about.
“I chatted with her coach during the winter because you go from when nobody knows who you are to, all of a sudden, being asked to run in the Diamond League. It’s all very different and sometimes even the coach hasn’t got the experience to deal with that. So it’s being able to talk to the coach in particular and say: ‘Why not look at this? Or have you thought about that?’”
Cram is convinced there are plenty of reasons to be cheerful about the future of athletics in Scotland.
With nine athletes achieving Glasgow 2014 standards at various events last weekend, Scotland’s potential track and field team for the Commonwealth Games is growing by the month.
Cram is optimistic about the young talent emerging and the impact of the games themselves.
He noted: “I watched events in Scotland a few years ago and there were some impressive youngsters like Chris O’Hare, the Hawkins lads Callum and Derek, Beth Potter and Lynsey Sharp. And now Laura is doing incredibly well. Scotland at the minute have talent.
“I remember going to see my son compete at the Inter-Counties and one of the Scotland teams won the under-15 title. That wouldn’t be the usual but those lads are starting to come through, like Chris.
“That encourages others to come in and you hope the games themselves will do that. If Scottish athletes are in contention, and maybe winning medals, that would be fantastic.
“My role now is about trying to enhance what we do within the endurance community.“It’s a bit different to other events in athletics we are looking at everything from fell running to 10,000 metres, half-marathons, 10ks on the road.
“It’s not just about the funded athletes who win medals. A lot of the focus has been around that but it’s about looking about what we can do to enhance that community.”