The Valencia festival of Las Fallas reaches a climax next weekend with the burning of Wicker Man-style effigies, but there are explosive pyrotechnics daily leading up to it.

Allan Scott hopes he can ignite some fireworks personally today in the 60 metres hurdles. The East Kilbride man beat the Scottish record with 7.52 seconds in January. He says his target is simply "to reach the final", but that time would put him in sight of a medal, even if logic acknowledges that gold is out of the question.

His time in Glasgow makes Scott fourth fastest of those in the field here for what is one of the most eagerly anticipated events of the 12th World Indoor Championships. The Chinese Olympic 110m hurdles champion and world outdoor hurdles record-holder, Liu Xiang, faces the Cuban, Dayron Robles, who has come within three 100ths of Colin Jackson's world indoor best this winter. He has seven of the eight fastest times this year, all under 7.47 seconds and three under 7.40.

"He is running 7.3-second races for fun," said Scott, who had a good view of the Cuban's heels in Germany. "He was in another race."

Even though the hurdles is a lottery, you suspect that could be the case when tomorrow's final is run. "There is no margin for error at all," says Scott. He knows that to his cost, having twice false-started this season. They were rare lapses for him, and Scott's coach, the former Fife pedestrian Stuart Hogg, was not impressed. "I let him know it; I threw a bottle of water over him," he confessed.

That is nothing to the pressure which Liu is under at home. With an injury which may rule their biggest sport celebrity, the so-called Great Tall of China, the 7ft 9in NBA basketball player Yao Ming, out of the Beijing Olympics, even more is now expected of Liu. He has found he cannot please all of his demanding countrymen.

Last summer he was appointed to the Chinese People's Consultative Conference. They opened a 12-day conference last Monday, by which time Liu was already training in Madrid. He was slammed in one national newspaper: "The session must not be attended only when the stars have time . . . Yes, it's important to prepare for the Olympics, but isn't the consultative job as a CPPCC member important?"

Liu confessed that he had enjoyed the freedom to walk around Madrid unrecognised. "If I do better in the Olympics, it may make up for my absence," he said.

Scott knows this is a great opportunity. He has moved past his old training partner, Chris Baillie, whose hopes of coming here were dashed by injury, and now ranks third on the British lists behind Jackson and Commonwealth champion Tony Jarrett. "If I can repeat that time 7.52 I'm going to be in the mix."

Hogg has been trying to get Scott to stop tightening up, which he says is they key to going better over 110m out-doors. "He needs to get rid of one or two bad habits but, if he can maintain his customary fast start and stay calm, he has every chance of another record, and that would be medal territory."

His unrelated namesake, Susan Scott, makes her championship debut at 1500m today. After an apprenticeship which includes two Scottish records, when finishing fourth in successive Commonwealth Games, she is making encouraging progress after illness and injury. There have been two Scottish records in the past month, at 800 and 1500m, the latter the 21-year old mark of former world indoor 3000m champion, Yvonne Murray.

Scott is 10th fastest of those lining up and a fighter in the Murray and Liz McColgan mould, "but this is only a stepping stone to my dream of getting to Beijing", she says.