Team Scotland coach and head of the Tullibody Wrestling Club, Colin McLaren, has paid tribute to the heroic efforts of his wrestling stars and says they will only get better as they bid for glory on the Gold Coast in four years time.

Shannon Hawke, Brian Harper and Chelsea Murphy all still train at the local club while fellow team Scotland member Lewis Waddell learned his trade there before moving clubs.

And the head coach admits he cannot believe the journey the four wrestlers have travelled to reach the heights of competing at the Commonwealth Games so early on in their careers.

McLaren told Advertiser Sport, “It is quite incredible to have seen them travel this path with the work they have all had to put in to get to the Commonwealth Games at such a young age. My trio at the Tullibody Wrestling club of Shannon, Chelsea and Brian have shown immense commitment to travel through to Glasgow to train three nights a week along with our training at Tullibody. This coupled with the support of the parents, which has been vital, has been a great effort from them to reach these kind of heights so early on.

“To compete in front of a home crowd and on TV in front of millions will be such a huge learning curve for them and hopefully they can build on that towards the next Games. They now know how hard they have to train for the Gold Coast.

“I wouldn’t say that Rio and the Olympic Games will come too soon for them but it is certainly a tough qualifier for them to get there. You need a top eight in Europe or a top 10 in the world to qualify for the Olympics and that is a tough ask for any British wrestler with the Eastern European countries around.

“All four of the guys are still really young though and so I personally think the Commonwealths in four years time is a more realistic target for them. They can look to go and actually compete for medals in the Gold Coast where as this time around was more about the experience.

“We always hoped they could surprise a few and grab a medal but it wasn’t to be. There were a few Olympic medallists at these Games and a few world ranked wrestlers so it was a tough ask for our guys but we are immensely proud of their efforts.” Tullibody hit the limelight during the Games because four members of the team started their wrestling careers at the local club and the coach reckons their success is down to the atmosphere during training.

McLaren says he is still on a massive high personally after helping lead Team Scotland to their first Wrestling medal at the Games in 20 years.

He explained, “It was a proud moment for me to be coaching the Scotland team where we achieved our first medal in 20 years and to do it in front of a home crowd was a pretty amazing feeling.

“Hopefully now we can get more people involved in the sport. The crowds all picked up the scoring quickly and really enjoyed themselves. We have a special group at the Tullibody Wrestling Club who encourage each other on and everyone that comes along feels welcome.” McLaren also revealed how a nasty shoulder injured had robbed Shannon Hawke of a bronze medal but also highlighted how brave she was to complete her matches.

He added, “Shannon got injured in the first round and with the quick turn around she didn’t get a chance to get it strapped up and so wrestled with the injury and lost because of the pain she was in.

“But that loss gave us a chance to treat the injury ahead of the bronze medal match but the pain was still too much for her. It was a heroic effort from her to still try to compete.”