SCOTLAND’S Stateside-based middle-distance men against a set of singular Scandinavian siblings. It is one of the themes of this European Indoor Athletics Championships. Ably supported by his big brothers Henrik and Filip, 18-year-old Jakob Ingebritsen has designs on walking away with gold medals from Glasgow this weekend in both the 1500m and 3000m. Thankfully a hat-trick of home heroes seem undaunted by the challenge of taking down the most talked-about teenager in world athletics.

First to embrace the challenge, in today’s 3000m final, are Andy Butchart and Chris O’Hare. Having coasted through behind him in the first heat yesterday – the young man’s European Under-20 record of 7.51.20 helped Butchart through in time which beat his own Scottish indoor native record of 7.51.28 – Butchart will try to take him on again with a gold medal on the line. Everybody is beatable, said a man even prepared to challenge Mo Farah en route to a sixth place finish over 5,000m at the Olympics in Rio. So closely did Butchart appear to be following his young rival that he even stood directly behind him on the start line.

“It wasn’t necessarily the plan to follow him [Jakob Ingebritsen],” said Butchart. “But in the car in today I thought ‘that is probably as good a plan as any, because he is going to go through’. “I didn’t want a slow, boring, jog fest. So thankfully I got my legs moving a little bit. It was so hot in there it should have been taps ‘aff

“I have always rated him,” added Butchart, a native of Dunblane who now lives out in San Diego with his girlfriend Lynsey Sharp. “He is very good but he is not unbeatable, that is the thing. Everyone in the sport is beatable. I looked up to Mo Farah, but you don’t give in - even to him.”

Butchart was joined in tonight’s 3,000m final by Chris O’Hare, the West Linton based athlete perhaps scoring a psychological point or two as he fended off Henrik Ingebritsen to win the second heat in a time of 7.53.39. Even if the pair joked around doing a Q and A for the TV cameras later on.

Of the nine Scots in this 49-strong GB + NI team, only one is a true Glaswegian: Neil Gourley. And the chance of a medal staying in this city lives on after this product of Merrylee Primary School and Williamwood High School booked his place in tomorrow’s finals as an impressive winner of his heat. Actually second over the line in a time of 3.46.63, Gourley ran a typically canny tactical race and found himself upgraded to first when Filip Ingebritsen was disqualified for stepping off the track.

With Jakob and the dangerous Marcin Lewandowski of Poland winning the other two heats, Gourley is beginning to sense that a medal may be up for grabs. “It was only going to be two of them, now one … but I’m just going to race with a lot of motivation on Sunday, regardless of who is in the race,” said the mechanical engineering graduate from Virginia Tech University.

“The field is so strong at the moment that it’s still going to be very tough to get a medal. But that’s the goal. I make no secret of the fact that I want to be on that podium on Sunday. ‘I am doing it for my friends and family who are here, to reward them with something like a medal on home turf would be amazing. To keep one of those medals in Glasgow would be special.”