I can go the distance, says Scot

THE honour roll from the 12 previous editions of the IAAF World Junior Championships reads like a Who's Who of prodigies who would later become fully-grown achievers. The biennial event has always provided a rite of passage for the best teenage athletes, with British prospects - from Colin Jackson at the inaugural event in 1986 to Steph Twell at the last - using victory to propel themselves upwards.

Matthew Graham is one of three Scots who have landed in the eastern Canadian city of Moncton for this year's edition which begins tomorrow, with Haile Gebrselassie among the illustrious past winners in his chosen 5,000 metres. Africans, as ever, are expected to dominate the event. The Glaswegian, however, embraces that challenge. "There's no reason why I can't make the final," he forecasts.

The positive mindset has been reinforced at his term-time base in Chicago. The 19-year-old has just completed his second year on scholarship at DePaul University. Week after week, there are collegiate races to conquer, balancing the pressures of his politics degree with dawn and dusk training sessions and travels that can stretch from east coast to west.

It requires a certain nerve to move 3,000 miles from home, alone, at 17. "I'd finished high school and done enough to get into university," Graham recalls. "But I was ready for a change after that. It was hard at the start. I was homesick at first. It took me a while to get used to everything over there. But once I'd adjusted, it was OK. Chicago's really nice.

"The main thing was just to make friends. But when you're in the team, you're living with the guys you train with so it's easy to get to know people. With the training and the classes and homework, you don't get time to miss home too much."

The adventure, he admits, has opened his eyes to possibilities on far-flung shores. One is fixed on a potential career in the diplomatic service, the other on a stint in the SAS. "That's my back-up plan," he laughs. Becoming an athlete, he insists, remains the preferred Plan A. Moncton is yet another proving ground. "The atmosphere here's like a college event but competition-wise, this a bit bigger," he declared.

Cupar-based runner Sarah Kelly, mentored by Liz McColgan, will begin her quest in the 1,500 metres heats on Tuesday while Falkirk hammer-thrower Myra Perkins is initially in action on Thursday.