Perth’s Ben Greenwood will follow in the footsteps of the likes of Laura Muir when he represents Scotland’s under-18s in international competition at Grangemouth this weekend.
The promising 800m runner, who has been selected for the Commonwealth Youth Games in Samoa next month, takes part in tomorrow’s Celtic Games match which features the best teenage athletes from Scotland, Ireland and Wales.
Greenwood reached the 800m semi-finals in the World Youth Games in Colombia earlier this month.
Scottishathletics director of coaching Rodger Harkins said: “In recent weeks we have seen some terrific performances by Scottish athletes at senior level and also at the European Age Group champs at under-23 and under-20 and at the World Youths in Colombia.
“We see the Celtic Games for under-18 and under-16 athletes as potentially the first step towards those events at some stage in the future.
“For many athletes, this is the beginning of their international careers, and if you look at the athletes who have been prominent in recent weeks, like Laura Muir, Chris O’Hare, Mark Dry, Neil Gourley, Josh Kerr, Jack Lawrie, Kathryn Gillespie and Mhairi Hendry, then I’m sure you will find them as having been involved in the Celtic Games in their mid to late teens competing for Scotland.
“This Celtic Games match at Grangemouth is an opportunity to try to deliver good performances which will underline their promise for the future.
“In the selections, we have included all four of the athletes who were with GB at the World Youths in Cali George Evans, Ben Greenwood, Carys McAulay and Cameron Tindle and we are delighted about that.
“So right there, within the under-18 Scotland team, there are athletes others can look up to for inspiration and motivation to try to emulate further down the line, and then there are those who went to the Euro under-20s and Euro under-23s this month as other role models.”