March 23 - Commonwealth Games Scotland today launched a new initiative under former world judo champion Graeme Randall (pictured in blue) designed specifically to enhance the opportunities for Scottish athletes and coaches on the world stage ahead of Glasgow 2014.


The Achieve 2014 programme has been created in association with sportscotland to offer a select number of talented athletes and coaches the opportunity to gain critical knowledge and experience of a multi-sport environment to assist their own preparations for medal success at the Commonwealth Games in four years, when Scotland hosts the event for the first time in 28 years.

The project will cost up to £144,000 and includes funding from Commonwealth Games Scotland and an award of £20,000 from sportscotland, with discussions also ongoing with a number of other funders.

The national agency for sport has also agreed to provide expertise to operate the programme and Randall, the 2001 world half-middleweight champion and 2002 Commonwealth Games gold medallist, has been appointed as the Achieve 2014 director, part of his new role as a partnership manager at sportscotland.

Post-Games studies and reports on athlete success at multi-sport Games have consistently highlighted that the environment experienced is significantly different to that which most athletes and staff encounter at their own single sport championships. 

However with prior multi-sport Games experience, team members are better able to cope with this unique environment and are more likely to perform and deliver to their full potential. 

Achieve 2014 will offer targeted athletes and coaches identified by sports in the Glasgow 2014 programme, the opportunity to travel to the Delhi 2010 Commonwealth Games for a five or six day learning experience. 

Each team member will be afforded the opportunity to observe their own or similar sport in competition and, if time permitting, other sports competing during their stay. 

Each Achieve 2014 Team member will complete specific learning tasks, daily event logs and, upon return, complete a brief report on their personal experiences throughout the whole event.

Assigned to each Achieve 2014 Team member will be an athlete mentor or coach mentor who will work closely with the individual athletes and coaches prior to departure, during the 2010 Games in Delhi and afterwards to ensure  the time spent in Delhi is utilised to achieve a robust, performance related outcome. 

Selection of athletes onto the Achieve 2014 Team will be through a nomination process in partnership with Scottish Governing Bodies of sport and sportscotland. 

It is anticipated that this opportunity will be offered to up to two athletes and/or one coach per sport. 

Michael Cavanagh, the chairman of Commonwealth Games Scotland said: "I am absolutely delighted that this initiative has come to fruition in time for the Commonwealth Games in Delhi in October.

"As we have known for many years, some athletes rise to the big multi-sport occasion whilst others are overwhelmed by it and in 2014 competing on home soil will bring huge additional pressures.

"Commonwealth Games Scotland has always been at the forefront of development, innovation and looking to the future.

"We established the Commonwealth Youth Games back in 2000 and we believe that Achieve 2014 will build on this.

"We are confident that investing in our future talented athletes and coaches will be money well spent and will help to ensure that our athletes have the best preparation possible and can compete with distinction in 2014 and beyond."

Randall said: "This is a really exciting project and I am delighted to be able to use my years of experience as an athlete and a high performance coach to help others in the same position.

"Just getting a glimpse of the size and scale of a Commonwealth Games will help the selected athletes and coaches get a feel for what they will face and allow them to plan how they will deal with it to make the most of their winning opportunities."

If successful the programme will run again in 2012 with athletes attending the London Olympic Games and then for the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.