Allison Curbishley

Published on Sunday 21 July 2002 01:00

As somebody who experienced the thrill of winning a Commonwealth Games silver medal in Kuala Lumpur four years ago, I am absolutely mortified that injury has ruled me out of the imminent carnival in Manchester.

Obviously, athletics is my main passion, and I know that there has been criticism of the quality of the Scottish track and field squad.

While it doesn’t help that individuals such as Dougie Walker, Ian Mackie, Kathy Butler and myself will be absent from the Manchester proceedings (I won’t even be in Britain for the Games because I am travelling to Colorado for a knee operation this week) I just don’t believe that we should be pessimistic about our chances.

For starters, the facilities throughout Manchester are tremendous and the pre-competition ticket sales have been brilliant, so our performers couldn’t ask for a better stage on which to parade their talents. I remember how the locals in Sydney were pretty down-beat and apprehensive in the months leading up to the Sydney Olympics but then, no sooner had the torch been lit by Cathy Freeman, than millions of us, from every nation on the globe, enjoyed a wonderful party which lasted a fortnight.

It will be the same in Manchester, especially if the sun shines, and I only wish I could be involved rather than facing another appointment with the medics. Mind you, from my perspective, we are still producing good athletes despite and not because of the system. I mean, my own Lottery funding was cut by mistake in December, and although the authorities have promised to repay me, this year I’ve been living on 500 a month, which is rubbish.

Actually, it’s not all the Scottish Institute’s fault, but the qualifying demands which have been placed on athletes in the run-up to these Games and the European Championships have been ridiculous and I don’t feel that the institute have addressed the problems properly.

Why do so many of us keep getting injured? Why is somebody such as Darren Ritchie having to worry about the Europeans at this stage with the Commonwealth Games five days away? But I suppose I should accentuate the positives and leave the grumbles to be resolved once our representatives have returned home.

In any case, I am 100% sure there will be shocks and surprises in Manchester, with our own contingent perfectly capable of reaching finals and striving for medals. Lee McConnell, for instance, is getting better with every race and when you consider the quality of the opposition, with Freeman sitting out the 400m, whilst both Donna Fraser and Katharine Merry are injured, I don’t doubt that Lee has an excellent opportunity to emerge from the pack and possibly win a medal. After all, she is the one British woman in form at the moment, recording a string of personal bests, and my advice to her is: go down there and perform to your full potential and you can force the Commonwealth media to scrabble around in their information packs and ask themselves: ‘Who the hell is that?’

The aforementioned Ritchie is also improving with every meeting and demonstrating that he has not been demoralised by years spent with knocks and niggles and days at the doctors. So why shouldn’t he leap into the limelight from relative obscurity? That’s the thing about these Games: the fields are quite weak in a lot of the disciplines compared to those at the Olympics, and I have the feeling that Britain is going to be celebrating a whole raft of triumphant tales of the unexpected on the track.

What Lee and Darren and Susan Scott and Sinead Dudgeon have to do now is set their sights on achievable targets, but with the conviction in their hearts that the crowds will be cheering them on, and that they have the ability to become instant heroes.

Take it from me, if you taste success, it is something which nobody can take away from you and it doesn’t matter who you have beaten as long as you are standing on the medal podium.

For the majority of us in the athletics business, the setbacks and disappointments far outweigh the good times, so you have to grab the latter and savour them for all they are worth. Even now, I still regret flying back from Kuala Lumpur two days after collecting my silver as there was no relay squad. I could kick myself for not breathing in the exhilaration and making every minute last an hour. That particularly grates given that I am missing out on appearing in the Games in my homeland, which won’t happen again in my career.

It hurts. It really does. And that exemplifies why these Games are to be cherished and treasured.

Darren Campbell told me recently he would exchange his Olympic silver for a Commonwealth gold and I know he wasn’t kidding. Some cynics may disagree, but they are mistaken. Once the Games begin, they are the very reason for any athletes’ existence.