Team Scotland chief reveals 2014 plan

but it is already time to get behind Team Scotland.

The Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games have taken a massive leap forward as the official selection gets underway to pick the best athletes to represent the country.

Sportsmen and women from the 17 events on the Games programme, including boxing, weightlifting and rugby, have just over a year to impress officials with their performances to be in with a chance of laying claim to a place on the team.

And it is set to be the biggest and best group of sporting stars yet.

They hope to beat the Delhi 2010 team of more than 190 competitors, and scoop more medals,

Scotland won 11 medals at Delhi, but had the biggest haul in Edinburgh, in 1986, when they took 33.

Team Scotland Chef de Mission Jon Doig, the Commonwealth Games Scotland (CGS) chief executive, said: "We've looked back in terms of past performances and we know the most medals we've got is 33.

"That's our starting point. That's our broad aim. We want this to be the best ever games for Scotland."

CGS is aiming to replicate the feel-good factor of the London Olympics in Glasgow and Scotland by urging people to get behind the national team.

Today it launches Go Scotland, a campaign which aims to raise awareness of the Games sports and highlight the different athletes in the country.

It's also calling for the whole of Scotland to get behind the team by pledging their support at goscotland.org and through social media channels.

Jon said: "Preparations for the games are really picking up now.

"The team will be selected by Commonwealth Games Scotland.

"What we have done with all the Scottish governing bodies of sports over the last year is set a general selection criteria about the type of team we want."

The first team members will be picked in September, with the final selection being announced just before the Games begin in July next year.

All the stars picked will have the ability to make the top eight in their category.

Jon, who is originally from New Zealand, said: A lot of them will do a lot better than that and a number of them may not achieve that, because they might have an injury.

"But everyone selected has the ability to make the top eight.

"That has lifted the whole standard over the past few Games and we are maintaining it going forward."

Traditionally Scotland has done well in cycling, boxing and bowls.

But Jon said the aim is to select a team that can do well "across the board".

People across the country are being asked to get behind the athletes.

Jon said: "We're going to set things up where people can send a message of support to their athletes.

"And when the Games come, if people get along to things like the weightlifting, it's such a spectacle.

"We had a young weightlifter, Peter Kirkbride, who first came onto our radar during the Commonwealth Youth Games in 2004. He won a silver medal at the last games. And the passion he had for Scotland, the emotion of that competition, is something that will live with him and us for a long time."

But Jon said now is not the time to put medal pressure on athletes.

He said: "We don't want to put too much pressure on them. Glasgow is on the athletes' horizons. Every Scottish athlete has got their eye on performing in front of their home crowd in the Glasgow Commonwealth Games.

"It's an opportunity that will come around probably once in their lifetime."

rachel.loxton@ eveningtimes.co.uk