Lack of support for budding sports star

THE shameful situation which has forced Aberdeen’s champion squash player Robyn Hodgson to look to America to continue her training is a sad indictment on how Scotland treats its budding sports stars. Robyn is acknowledged as the best under-19 female squash player in the country, but is constantly overlooked by national selectors because she chooses to train in her home city rather than commute up and down to Edinburgh. Her reasoning for this is that the cost in time and money of travelling is too much and would adversely affect her studies. Add to that the fact that, by training in Aberdeen, she has the services of Pat Nicol, father of former British number one Peter, and it is difficult to argue with her logic.

But rules are rules, and, according to national performance director Paul Frank, Robyn fails to meet the current selection criteria, although he refuses to say why. So a supremely talented, ambitious competitor, who is the best player in her class in Scotland, cannot represent her country because of a rule they won’t discuss. Just a few years ago, Peter Nicol defected to England because of the poor support he received from his country of birth. Lessons clearly have not been learnt.