In the aftermath of the Scots doing so we in the World Athletics Championships it is worth pondering the role of our temporary home Scotstoun in all this and its link back to rugby

There is an adage in sport that runs " if you want to be successful choose your parents carefully"
Whilst this isn't a panacea for success it can sure help

Scottish Rugby's stalwart and former Warrior John Barclay has athletics roots deep in Scotstoun
Not the Scotstoun of today but a Scotstoun where all events were cancelled annually in June to accommodate the annual Horse Show after all it was originally an Agricultural Showground
Nothing wrong there it certainly hasn't held Leinster back

Johns father Graham was no mean athlete He competed in the colours of Victoria Park in the High Jump in an era when the club virtually owned the British High Jump record for twenty years with Alan Paterson and Crawford Fairbrother a weather forecaster at Renfrew Airport
Graham Barclay won both the Scottish and British Youth titles in the early 1970s
and set a British youth record of 1.93m 6ft4" in 1971
An all rounder he also recorded 3m 75cm for the Pole Vault and 5747 points in the Decathlon
Graham who attended Hyndland School trained at the old Showgrounds using the now demolished stables during inclement weather.You can still see the remains when you look down the inside of the red brick Danes Drive wall in fact at that time you ocould get a straight 100 metres down that wall under cover
John's grandmother used to stitch up special tartan shorts of some of the Victoria Park athletes when they competed south of the border

The pursuit of physical excellence even touched former Glasgow player Fergus Wallace when in an amateur era with GHK he ,brother Murray who was capped and former Warriors forwards coach Shade Munro sought advice on fitness programmes from coaches based at Scotstoun
Dudley Brotchie then coaching with Glasgow Athletic Club helped guide them in this area along with the likes of Bob Tomlinson now Hawks match day announcer
Many of the principles currently used by the fitness coaches at Warriors have been tried and tested in the athletics world for generations so to certain degree Fergus was ahead of his time seeking out this advice in the early 90s
Much of the aerobic and anaerobic work linked with strength and flexiblity programmes set out for the current generation of Warriors players owe a lot to the athletics thinking that has permeated Danes Drive over the years

Even the likes of Alan Wells benefited from the thinking of the Scottish "pedestrian" tradition that had grown out of the Powderhall Sprint and this is still relevant today with Margot Wells coaching former Warriors winger Thom Evans who competed a few years back at Scotstoun in his amazing comeback from injury
This link persists to this day with former Victoria Park star Chris Baillie assisting Jamie Dempsey and Derrick Speirs at the BT Academy with speed sessions