Mystery as selectors leave Angela in limbo

Mystery surrounds the absence this weekend of Angela Bridgeman-Baxter

from the national athletics team which is having its final fling of the

season in Munich where a final attempt to achieve Commonwealth Games

standards looks largely like mission impossible.

Certainly, it is a bridge too far for Baxter, who one might think, as

reigning Scottish women's 200 metres champion and winner of four

Scottish titles, with some 20 international appearances behind her,

would rate a place in the team for Germany. But not a bit of it.

The 1982 Commonwealth 4 x 400 metres relay bronze medallist is out in

the cold, not out of favour with the selectors, but, what is worse,

effectively a stateless person because of a twist in the Scottish

Women's AAA rules which demand that in order to be eligible for Scotland

an athlete must either be born in Scotland, be of Scottish parentage, or

reside there.

The 25-year-old Baxter was born in London of West Indian parents and

her family moved to Glasgow when Angie was six months old. Their home

since then has been in Glasgow, the past 15 years in Drumchapel.

It was from the family home there that Angie went to school locally.

It was there that her mother, a nursing sister, combed the grit of

Scotstoun Showgrounds from her daughter's hair after athletics training

sessions, and she and her musician husband George were justifiably proud

when their daughter, after joining Glasgow AC, became a team stalwart

and internationalist, competing regularly for Scotland for several

seasons.

It was to her Glasgow home that the offer of one of Scotland's first

sports scholarships came, from Stirling University. But Angie was wary

of the degree she might obtain and subsequently made her way daily from

Drumchapel to Glasgow University, studying biochemistry in which her

elder brother and sister had both previously gained honours degrees.

It was to the same humble Drumchapel council house that David Hemery,

the Olympic hurdles champion, came offering a sports scholarship to the

University of Boston. A shy teenager, she was wary of leaving, but in

1984 accepted another scholarship, to Brigham Young University, Utah.

She came home each summer vacation, competing for Glasgow AC, and

also, usually, in the national championships. But last year, beginning

the build-up for what she hoped would be a third Commonwealth Games, she

damaged a cartilage and required surgery. The operation was in Glasgow

last August. When the plaster came off six weeks later the muscle

atrophy was so bad, the limb so rigid and locked with scar tissue, that

doubts were cast on her ability even to walk properly again.

''The muscle was wasted almost to the bone,'' said Angela. ''I had no

flexion in the limb, no extension. But I was determined to make it. I

worked out daily, spent hours with the rehabilitation physiotherapists,

and in the whirlpool bath. But it was February before I could even

jog.''

Despite all these physical tribulations, she managed to conclude her

five-year course at BYU, graduating with a degree in sport and business

management in April. A couple of weeks later, on May 5, she returned

home with Kurt, her husband of two years.

It was something of a miracle that she was able to win the national

200 metres title at Crownpoint in July. Subsequently, she proved this

year's fastest Scot at that distance when finishing fifth in the WAAA

championships. She was getting faster and faster as recovery from injury

progressed, beginning to approach the 200m qualifying time for the

Commonwealth Games. But she could not get a run in any other quality

race, and, mystifyingly, no Scottish vest was forthcoming, even though

there were opportunities at international matches in Antrim and Germany.

But the writing really went on the wall when she was omitted from a

team put together to attempt the Auckland qualifying time for the 4 x

400m relay. Scotland are guaranteed four additional places if the

standard, 3min. 35sec., can be achieved by October 1, but Mrs Baxter,

faster by three seconds than the weakest link in the team, was never

approached. The team failed to make the standard . . . by roughly three

seconds.

When approached, an official of the SWAAA said that because Baxter

would not have been resident in Scotland for six months on the day of

Commonwealth Games selection, she was ineligible under their rules.

Under Commonwealth federation rules, however, she is eligible, having

competed for Scotland in the past two Games, and for nobody else.

Baxter has not reached the Games standard in either the 200 or 400m.

Had she done so, it would have forced the authorities to examine her

case more closely. But had they included her in a relay team -- and one

might even have been arranged in Munich this weekend -- then four more

Scots could have been eligible for Auckland.

It seems too late to change the rules in time for Baxter to be

proposed for New Zealand, unless officials take the view that her home

residence while a student in the USA, remained in Drumchapel.

Baxter, always charming and friendly, and with never a hint of

embarrassment to cloud her years of international service, is

understandably extremely upset. ''I feel as though my heart has been

ripped out,'' she said. ''I was ready to throw in my spikes. Scotland is

my home, and I have lived my life here. All my family and childhood

friends are here, yet now I feel like a stateless person.

''Maybe I am naive. Maybe I should have contacted officials when I

arrived home from university. But that is how I look on it. Home. I took

that for granted. It seems I am being discriminated against for having

gone abroad to study. Ironically, I have been asked in the past about

running for England, or for a West Indies team, and turned it down.

Because I am a Scot. Since the last Commonwealth Games, when I did not

run well, Auckland has been my goal. If I failed to make the grade, fair

enough. To have it said that I am ineligible is just devastating.''

What I have to ask of a situation which reeks of incompetence at best,

is: what about 1986? When Baxter ran in that team she had already been

in Utah for nearly two years. She returned in early June, and within a

fortnight qualified for the Edinburgh Commonwealth Games by winning the

Scottish 200m title. And a few weeks later was included in the Games

team.

The eligibility rules then were the same as they are now -- six

months' residence. Nobody questioned her right then to wear a Scottish

vest.