Sporting stars to look out for in 2011

Football

David Templeton

The young Hearts star burst on the Scottish football scene three years ago when Hearts signed him from Stenhousemuir but it is only in the past few months under manager Jim Jefferies that he has flourished, earlier injuries and a loan spell at Raith Rovers now forgotten.

Named David Cooper Templeton by his Rangers-supporting father, the former professional player Henry, there have already been comparisons with the Rangers legend, though Templeton himself sees the name as a mixed blessing, not least because he grew up a Celtic fan.

Blessed with pace and an eye for goal - he has notched seven this season - and with ever-developing skills, Templeton turns 22 on Friday, and, having been capped for Scotland at under-19 and under-21 level, a full international cap is surely going to be his very soon.

A slight figure at 5ft 9 ins and weighing less than ten stone, Templeton is nevertheless strong on the ball and, as he showed with his wonder goal against Hibs in the first Edinburgh derby of the season, he loves to run at players and will shoot on sight.

This has been his breakthrough season, and it is not over yet by a long chalk. We will see and hear much more of him.

Rugby

Rob Harley

Look out for Glasgow's back-row forward Rob Harley in the coming months although, in truth, he is hard to miss given the shock of bright red hair that announces his Scottish ancestry long before he opens his mouth.

Harley does not look like a natural athlete and he is caught, a little like Jason White, between the number four and six shirts. He is a little on the slight side for the second row and a tad slow about the park for a breakaway but what he has in spades are attitude and desire.

Harley demonstrated recently he is also a surprisingly skilful player. He ran back one Edinburgh kick off in the first inter-city derby and beat a couple of defenders before off-loading from the floor to send DTH van der Merwe scorching 60 metres to the try line. Andy Robinson has options for the number six shirt - Kelly Brown is the incumbent and Alasdair Strokosch is the challenger - but don't discount Glasgow's big six from adding his name into the mix.

Golf

James Byrne

Scotland may be struggling to get any players into the top echelons of world professional golf, with only Martin Laird - just and no more - in the top 50 of the official rankings.

Sitting proudly at No.20 in the world amateur rankings, however, is James Byrne, who earlier in the season reached a new career high of 12th in the table.

Byrne was born in England, but his father Paul and mother Siew, originally from Singapore, moved the family to Banchory three weeks later. From childhood, young James excelled at both swimming and golf, joining Banchory Golf Club at the age of eight.

He won age group championships in the pool and set club and district records before decided to concentrate on golf from 2004. At the age of 18 he won the Scottish Boys' Strokeplay Championship, and took up a golf scholarship at Arizona State University.

Byrne continued to travel home to play for Scotland, and also won the Scottish Golf Union Order of Merit Tennant Cup in 2009.

He will graduate with a marketing degree from ASU this year and, having finished runner-up in the 2010 Amateur Championship, he is expected to move smoothly into the professional circuit, though only after making an all-out bid to join the Great Britain and Ireland team for the Walker Cup which will be played not far from home at Royal Aberdeen.

Cricket

Matty Parker

By necessity as much as choice, Scotland's future generation of cricketers were asked in 2010 to become its present, forging a new identity to restore a degree of lustre to the national side. At just 20, Arbroath-born Matty Parker came of age, overcoming the inevitable travails of inexperience and inconsistency to become a fixture in the Saltires bowling attack.

Having come through the age-group ranks to make his senior international debut, Parker restored faith in Cricket Scotland's production line with a thrifty 4-33 return against Kenya and several forceful spells throughout a run to the Intercontinental Cup final. His batting has room for improvement but observers sense that gains there will soon come.

The question now is whether Forfarshire's great hope will remain north of the Border or be lured south? Having already guested for Durham's second team, the medium-pacer is on the radar of the English counties, with Sussex also thought to be interested. No wonder then that Scotland seem likely to protect their investment by offering him a full-time contract for next year. And while the Saltires will watch on as the World Cup begins without them, there is some hope that their rising stars can ensure their inclusion come 2015.

Athletics

Beth Potter

After bursting to prominence when she claimed several schools records established by future Olympic medallist Yvonne Murray, Beth Potter continued to make strides until a shin problem halted her progression. A talented swimmer, the Glaswegian - who turned 19 last week - turned to the pool to speed her recovery, returning in late summer to provide reassurance that she might yet survive the perilous transition from the junior ranks into adulthood.

Now based at Loughborough University, the Victoria Park product has the luxury of combining study with training alongside many of Britain's established names, while a recent training trip to Kenya provided a further glimpse of what is required to make the grade.

Potter's immediate target should be this year's European Under-23 Championships in the Czech Republic. A place at the 2012 Olympic Games is not, injuries permitting, an unreasonable ambition. And, having finished in a creditable 36th place at the world cross country championships last March, there are strong signals that her future lies at longer distances following a move up in distance on the track to 3000 metres where she ended the year ranked third at under-20 level in the UK.

Boxing

John Thain

Though the Edinburgh boxer was well-known to followers of the amateur game, young welterweight John Thain announced his arrival on the professional scene with a spectacular knockout of Iain Eldridge on the undercard of Ricky Burns' successful first title defence at Braehead Arena last month.

Though he had recorded victories over the durable Kevin McAuley and the much higher ranked Paddy Pollock in his first two pro contests in March and September respectively, Thain's dazzling knockout of Eldridge after just 90 seconds has many professionals and pundits hailing him as Scotland's next boxing champion.

After a very fine amateur career which saw him win eight international caps, 23-year-old Thain decided to turn professional just over a year ago, and his potential was spotted by Britain's biggest promoter, Frank Warren, who signed him for his stable of fighters.

Trained by Terry McCormack at the Lochend club in Edinburgh, the son of a Scottish father and Filipina mother has already had the chance to see the hero of that latter nation up close, as he has visited Freddie Roach's famous gym in Los Angeles and watched Manny Pacquiao spar.

Expect Thain, whose commitment to his sport is already obvious, to have a few more fights this year before stepping up to championship level early in 2012.

Motorsport

Lewis Williamson

Highlander Lewis Williamson is the latest Scot predicted to follow Bathgate's Paul di Resta into Formula One.

Williamson, the Dundee-born 21-year-old who now lives in Golspie, finished runner-up in the 2010 British Formula Renault Championship, the series which spawned F1 world champs Kimi Raikkonen and Lewis Hamilton.

But the young Scot's year ended on the perfect high when he received the McLaren Autosport Young Driver of the Year, the pinnacle for young drivers, at an awards ceremony in London. Impressively, the 100,000 prize, plus the test drive in a McLaren F1 car, came after he blew the five other contenders away in a series of driving tests - including outings in a F2 single-seater and DTM touring car - at Silverstone.

Williamson, who is being targeted by all the leading teams, is expected to graduate this year to GP3, the series which forms part of the Formula One support package around Europe.

Such is Williamson's inherent natural ability that, having received a very last-minute call to attend a GP3 test at Estoril, the youngster arrived in Portugal the next day and immediately topped the timesheets despite having never driven the car before.

GP3 is seen as a natural springboard to GP2 which, in turn, is now accepted as the feeder route to F1. With all Williamson has achieved in the past two years - he only switched from karts to singleseaters at the very end of 2009 - don't rule out yet another Scot making it to Formula One.

Swimming

Craig McNally

Craig McNally was the youngest male swimmer in Scotland's Commonwealth Games team and he was rather a shock selection. But he more than proved his worth in Delhi in October when he finished in the top 12 in the individual 100m and 200m backstroke and played a key role in Scotland's fifth place in the medley relay.

Having completed his sixth year at Balerno High School last summer, the Edinburgh youngster is now taking a year out to concentrate on fulfilling his Olympic dream. Currently ranked seventh in backstroke in Britain, his goal is to get into the top three and then survive the pressure of the London 2012 Olympic trials.

Craig celebrated his 18th birthday ten days ago but there has been little time for any festive fun over the past couple of weeks as he is already preparing for the British Gas National Short-course Championships at Glasgow's Tollcross Leisure Centre next weekend.

Coached by Laurel Bailey at Edinburgh's Warrender Club, he will be defending the 200m title and wants to complete a backstroke double by also claiming the 100m event. Gregor Tait, a two-time Olympian and the 2006 Commonwealth Games Campion, made his name as a world-class British backstroker. McNally intends to follow in his compatriot's wake.

Cycling

Kenta Gallagher

Mountain biker Kenta Gallagher is another Scottish cyclist destined for big things, the 18-year-old from Inverness being one of the up-and-coming stars in British mountain-biking. He joined the British Olympic Academy in December 2010 where he will now train full-time as part of the elite programme. A former BMX rider, he began mountain biking five years ago and rode in the juvenile category of the Scottish XC Mountain Bike series in 2005-6, winning the series overall in 2006. He was silver medallist at the Scottish SXC Championships in 2006 and in October 2006 he was selected for Scottish Cycling 's Talent Team and, having been reselected in 2007, he gained four national titles the following year. A fearless and dedicated rider, the former British Junior Champion was elevated to the British Cycling Olympic Development Programme in 2009, where it is said he redefined the standards expected of those training and competing at that level.

Snooker

Anthony McGill

SCOTLAND has boasted several world snooker champions over the years with the likes of Stephen Hendry, John Higgins and Graeme Dott.

Now there is a new kid on the block who, at the age of 19, is already making significant strides on the green baize.

Anthony McGill only joined the professional ranks in July but some impressive results have helped him climb to a highly credible 52 in the world rankings. Two results in particular made everyone sit up and take notice that that this was someone with a hugely promising future, 4-0 whitewashes over seven-times world champion Hendry and fellow Glaswegian Stephen Maguire in the Players Tour Championship.

McGill's mentor and manager John Rea, the 1989 Scottish Professional Champion from Clydebank, is convinced the teenager is ready to join the ranks of top players from Scotland and puts his recent progress down to not only natural ability but a willingness to work hard at his game.

Horseracing

Bill Farnsworth

He is probably the oldest "one to watch" ever chosen by this newspaper but, at 42, racing administrator Bill Farnsworth is about to make a real contribution on the UK racing scene. The indefatigable general manager of Musselburgh Racecourse has been recognised for his hard work and flair in taking the once poor relation of Scotland's five racing tracks into a new era of success, with numerous developments that have turned the East Lothian track into one of the best, if not the best, small courses in the UK.

Though the planning system did not permit the all-weather track Farnsworth wanted at Musselburgh, he has still brought in many improvements and seen prize money boosted to record levels.

Having been appointed in August to the board of the British Horseracing Authority, Farnsworth is now bringing a good deal of hard-headed Yorkshire common sense and his own brand of enthusiasm to the task of wrangling with racing's deep-seated problems, many of them self-inflicted.

The eight-strong BHA board is uniquely placed to drive racing forward, and in the years ahead, expect Farnsworth to play a greater role in explaining what the BHA wants to do in a rather more cogent and approachable manner than it has done in the past.