Commonwealth Games 2014: Keep calm and win medals, Eilidh Child tells fellow Scots

Eilidh Child has urged Scottish athletes to not get caught up in the Glasgow atmosphere (Getty Images)

Eilidh Child has urged her Scotland team-mates to stay calm in the face of the nation’s fervour to crown their athletes champions.

The Commonwealth Games athletics programme will kick off at Hampden Park four days after Wednesday’s Celtic Park opening ceremony and there is already considerable excitement in Glasgow. But Child, a Commonwealth silver medallist in Delhi in 2010 and the most experienced member of the Scots’ 58-strong track, field and marathon squad, is wary of athletes getting “carried away”.

Outside their busy training schedules, the medal hopefuls will face a range of demands on their time in the Games build-up as they sort out tickets, deal with family and friends and requests from the media.

But Child, who will compete in the 400m hurdles on 29 July and the 4x400m relay on 1 August in a hectic Hampden schedule, said: “For the younger ones my advice would be: don’t get too carried away.

“Because you are a Scottish athlete, people will want to put medals around your neck in advance. It is excitement, enthusiasm and only natural. But you have to focus and remember what your own goals are and what your coach’s expectations are. Those are liable to be more realistic. You have to keep that uppermost in your mind and not be carried along too much or distracted in any way.

“We all have to try and not get too nervous with the pressure. Of course you want to enjoy it and savour it. I want to embrace everything myself. But you also want to be able to come away and think you performed to your best.”

Scottish athletes will need to keep their heads in Glasgow (goscotland.org)

England’s Greg Rutherford, the reigning Olympic long-jump champion, has pulled out of the Anniversary Games in London in a bid to be fully fit for the Glasgow Games. He withdrew from last week’s Diamond League meeting in Glasgow, citing knee problems.