JACK McConnell admits to being somewhat surprised when he was invited to become honorary President of Scottish Athletics. the former First Minister of Scotland took up the role in September at the conclusion of one of the most successful seasons that the sport in this country has ever seen.

16 Scottish representatives in the GB team for the World Championships earlier this summer was record breaking and McConnell cannot hide his excitement about becoming involved in track and field athletics at such a positive time for the sport. “I’m quite surprised to have been asked because I’m not exactly the most athletic individual,” he laughed. “But I’m absolutely delighted – I can’t think of a better time to be taking up a role supporting Scottish Athletics.

“I’ve been an athletics supporter and attender for a long time and it’s currently such an exciting time with more world-class competitors than we’ve had for decades. And there’s also a renewal of activity at the club level across Scotland so those two things together make it the perfect time.”

As honorary President, McConnell may not be involved in the day in, day out inner workings of the organisation but he is keen to tap into the skills he has learnt during his two decades in political life, including six years as Scotland’s First Minister.

“I’d like to be able to use my experience to advise and support the organisation and the people involved, as well as support the people who are running and throwing and jumping,” he told Herald Sport.

“But I also want to be an advocate for funding and support for sport. I think the Commonwealth Games and the development of Scottish sport has been a success over recent years but you can never become complacent about that.”

The elite of Scottish Athletics may be taking the world by storm, a fact that is highlighted by the strength-in-depth of the shortlist for Athlete of the Year at this evening’s FPSG Scottish Athletics Awards dinner, but perhaps even more encouraging is the growth of the club system, which has flourished in recent years.

For McConnell, the grassroots of the sport including increasing participation levels are vitally important and Scottish Athletics are doing a fine job at increasing their base which, in turn, will almost certainly have a knock-on effect of producing more world-class athletes.

“I think you can tell when an organisation is healthy and Scottish Athletics is clearly supporting some of the most elite individuals we’ve had for a long time but when you look behind that, you can see how much the club structures matter and how much they’re growing.

“Volunteer coaches who work at clubs are just as important as the coaches who are helping produce winning performances from Eilidh Doyle or Laura Muir or anybody else.

“That’s a fantastic combination and it’s a recipe for long-term success.”

The value placed on sport is something that McConnell has long been a champion for, including being at the helm of the Scottish government when Glasgow decided to bid for the 2014 Commonwealth Games.

The importance of sport and physical activity is something that he remains passionate about to this day.

“As a public figure over the years, I’ve felt strongly that it was important to keep sport at the centre of public policy and not just at the margins,” he said.

“I believe it’s important on three levels – firstly, if you have inspirational role models, they’re great to watch do they do also inspire activity throughout the population.

“Secondly, you have the immediate health benefits for individuals of participation and that doesn’t need to be what people would call sport but physical activity of any kind is a better remedy than medicine for many people and the other thing, something that I think is perhaps undervalued, is the positive benefits for communities of physical activities and organised clubs. Being part of local activities and local clubs is a key thing in local communities. But we need cross-party, long-term commitment to support it.”

As McConnell looks forward, he inevitably compares the position Scottish Athletic is in to where it has come from and he admits that he cannot quite believe the transformation in fortunes. “If you go back to 10 or 15 years ago, at Commonwealth Games as well as OLympic Games, we were hoping that a Scot might make a final of a major championship,” he said.

“Now, we’re disappointed if people don’t get medals. That’s a huge turnaround and I think what you see is success feeding off success.

“I was in London in the summer for the World Championships and you’re almost expecting Scots to win medals and that’s just incredible. The turnaround is bigger than any one individual performance.”