Ovens: Athletics is, and has been for some time, our leading sport

The National

02-05-2025

The chair of scottishathletics has, after all, just witnessed a Scot win yet another major championship medal, he's played a significant role in ensuring the sport's primary competition venue will remain open and he's optimistic that a new generation of Scottish athletes will soon emerge onto the world stage.
It comes, then, as little surprise that Ovens believes athletics is, as things stand, Scotland's leading sport.
'Athletics is clearly Scotland's most successful sport at the moment and, in my opinion, has been for the past decade or so,' he says.
'There's a range of factors that go into athletics being such a strong and successful sport but, from my perspective, the most important thing is that the foundations are really solid so it develops from there.'
One of the most headline-grabbing moments so far of 2025 was Neil Gourley's silver medal-winning performance in the 1500m at the World Indoor Championships in Nanjing in March.
It was an impressive performance in itself but even more impressive was its contribution to one of the most remarkable statistics in Scottish sport; Scottish athletes have won medals at nine of the past ten major athletics championships, with Olympic silverware and world titles included in that streak.
For Ovens, Gourley's run was satisfying to watch not only because it extended the run of success of Scottish athletes at the highest level, but also because it was, at the grand old age of 30, the Glaswegian's first global silverware.
'Another major medal was fantastic and I'm really pleased for Neil because that medal has been coming for quite some time,' Ovens says.
Neil Gourley won World Indoor 1500m silver earlier this year (Image: Getty Images)
'Neil is part of a generation where there's an ingrained mentality that they will be competing on the world stage for medals and so it was great for him, and the sport, to see it happen.'
Gourley's world indoor silver medal came just weeks before what could be considered an even more significant development; the confirmation that Grangemouth Stadium would remain open.
For several years, Grangemouth Stadium, which is used regularly for junior, senior and masters Scottish athletics competitions, has been under the threat of closure but finally, a solution has been found that will ensure at the very least, the short-term future of the venue and also, hopes Ovens, the long-term future too.
David Ovens (Image: Bobby Gavin/Scottish Athletics)
From the 1st of June, the Grangemouth Community Sports Trust will take over the facility and given the venue's significance for the sport in this country, Ovens is barely able to mask his relief that closure has been prevented. However, he also notes his disappointment that there's hasn't been greater understanding from those at the very top of quite how valuable sports facilities are to this country and its population.
'Grangemouth has been earmarked for closure for a number of years so we've worked hard to reduce what was a significant financial deficit when it was in the hands of the council to a place where it should break even,' he says
'It's a huge thing for the sport to keep Grangemouth open. It's our most important stadium geographically because 50 so many of our athletes can get there within an hour. It's our main national competition venue and it's a really busy stadium so it would have been a tragedy if Grangemouth had closed.
'Our chief executive, Colin Hutchison, put in a power of work and we got very good support from Falkirk Council as well as sportscotland and I think that was because Grangemouth is such a significant stadium for athletics both nationally and locally.
'But I don't think though that there's enough recognition at government level of the importance of these kind of facilities, and it's not just athletics facilities, it's swimming pools, hockey pitches and the rest.
'It goes back to the point that the reason athletics has been so successful in recent years is because of the foundations that are in place and facilities are a big part of that strong foundation. The danger for so many sports is that the foundations are starting to become shaky I don't think, at government level, there's a strong enough recognition of the importance of these facilities.
'Yes, these venues are important from a sporting perspective but I also think they're hugely significant in a societal sense for things like health and well-being and so I would like to see a change in the government's attitude towards this.'
It is, justifiably, Scotland's current crop of world-class athletes such as Laura Muir, Josh Kerr, Eilish McColgan and Jake Wightman who dominate the media coverage afforded to athletics but given these athletes are all in their late-twenties and beyond, it's understandable that the question has begun to be asked as to who, if anyone, is going to fill the boots of these individuals when they inevitably retire.
Ovens, however, is quietly confident that there is a wave of athletes coming through the ranks who will ably back-up the success Kerr, Muir et al have so regularly achieved on the global stage and particularly with the 2026 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow just 14 months away, he is keen for some of Scotland's younger athletes to begin to make their presence felt on the international stage.
'This summer, I'm really looking forward to seeing Scottish athletes achieve the qualifying times for next year's Commonwealth Games and I'm looking forward to seeing who's going to emerge,' he says.
'There's Sarah Tait, Brodie Young and Rebecca Grieve who are all out in America and are edging towards world class and there's also the sprinter Dean Patterson who's developing very well so there's a list of names who are looking very exciting. We've got very good depth and so that talent coming through, combined with the fact they can look up to these world-class athletes, makes me feel very optimistic for the future.'
First thing's first, though, and before the Commonwealth Games there's this year's World Championships in Tokyo in September.
Scottish athletes have enjoyed remarkable success at recent editions of the event, including two 1500m world champions in the shape of Wightman in 2022 and Kerr in 2023 and while Ovens would never be complacent about extending Scotland's medal-winning streak at major events, he remains quietly confident of yet more success this summer.
'We can never take for granted how many medals Scottish athletes have won in recent years,' he says.
'Having said that, there is yet another excellent chance this season of more silverware.
'I'd love to see Jemma Reekie get a gold medal and I'd love to see any of Jake (Wightman), Josh (Kerr) and Neil (Gourley) get a medal and continue that run in the 1500 meters.
'I'm confident that we will get some silverware at the World Champs.'