ON Saturday, international athletics returned to Glasgow for the first time since last summer's Commonwealth Games.

 

Although Team GB was narrowly beaten into second place by the Germans (I guess they're due a sporting success now and again), another strong crowd turned out to see a host of world class performances.

Last January's event was very much the curtain raiser for a truly historic sporting year and the challenge now in 2015 is to carry this momentum through.

Even since Glasgow was first awarded the Games, we've heard a lot about the L word - Legacy - and at times you would be forgiven for thinking it's just another one of those empty phrases marketers put in powerpoint presentations.

However in Glasgow's case we're already starting to see the results and it is fair to say they are pretty impressive.

New figures released last week, revealed that Glasgow-based firms secured £423 million worth of Commonwealth Games contracts - a figure £200 million higher than initial estimates and over half the total sum.

This economic boost reverberated right across the City and laid the groundwork for further developments.

For instance, businesses bidding for Games contracts did so through the Glasgow Business Portal, which - as a condition - required successful firms to take on school-leavers and the long-term unemployed.

This model proved so successful, Glasgow City Council is now set to apply it to the £1 billion-plus City Deal it signed with the UK Government.

This promises to generate further opportunities and is a welcome example of how big infrastructure projects can deliver for the local area.

Talking of which, Clyde Gateway, the biggest regeneration project in the UK, received a significant boost when it named Lord Smith of Kelvin as its new chair.

No-one could ever accuse Lord Smith of shirking a challenge - indeed he seems to relish them - but the man who spearheaded the Games and delivered the proposals for further devolution - is the safest of safe hands.

Of course the litmus test for any legacy is whether it delivers for young people and generations to come.

That is why on Monday, in this very paper, I was pleased to read about Andrew Kerr and Ian Henderson - two young media graduates from Cardonald College who gained invaluable experience during the Games.

Andrew was part of the Host Broadcasters Training Initiative, which offered over 600 young people once in a lifetime work placements in broadcast training.

As someone who, in a previous guise, did this for a living I know how priceless this training will prove to be and how important it is to get a foot in the door.

So in the years to come, perhaps when Scotland next hosts a major sporting event, it's my hope that some of those handling the coverage would have got their first break back in the summer of 2014.

That, to me, would seem like a legacy to be proud of.