IT is that time of winter again when the gongs are handed out for sporting achievement during the year.

This being Scotland, football dominates the thoughts of most of those who judge these sort of things, especially the public. I will be handing out my own sporting gongs next week that will include the numerous contenders for the cretinous football club statement of the year, and let’s face it, there will only be one winner of the team of the year, so I’ll leave the footie alone just now – and the rugby, as I intend to contrast and compare the two sports in a future column.

Judging by last week’s Scottish Sports Awards back by sportscotland – what do you mean you missed them? That’s what happens when one media outlet takes charge! -- there is only one contender for the Scottish sport of the year itself. Athletics provided a third of the nominees for Scottish Sports Personality of the year, and Sammi Kinghorn was the deserved winner of the main award as well as the Disability Sports Award.

Sammi is totally inspirational and her double gold at the IPC Athletics World Championships in London in July shows that, at just 21, she could dominate the sport of wheelchair racing just as Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson did – and that’s not my verdict, that is what Dame Tanni said herself.

Nominated for the main award were runners Laura Muir and Callum Hawkins, while the Young Sports Personality of the Year was Jemma Reekie, the European junior 3000m champion. Others who could quite easily have been nominated included Eildih Doyle, captain of team GB & NI and 400m relay silver medal winner at the World Athletics Championship – she’ll get a special mention next week – and Chris O’Hare, the British 1500m champion; Eilish McColgan who set personal bests at five different distances this year; Andrew Butchart who has just won a bronze medal in the European cross country championships; Steph Twell who capped a fine season by winning team gold at the same championships at which young Mhairi McLennan also took team gold in the under-23 race; Lynsey Sharp, the 800m world championship finalist; Diamond League 1500m winner Jake Wightman and several more – don’t forget there were a record 13 Scots in Team GB & NI at the Worlds in London.

My only complaint about last week’s Awards is that racehorse trainer Lucinda Russell was not nominated for her achievement in saddling One For Arthur to win the Grand National. Sunday Mail editor Brendan McGinty saved the day, however, by giving winning jockey Derek Fox his personal award.

On the night, it was mostly about athletics, however. After a couple of decades of under-achieving, the recent revival of Scottish athletics has been wonderful to see and not since the days of Alan Wells, Liz McColgan, Yvonne Murray, Tom McKean et al have we had such an array of talent in track and field. Indoor and outdoor, Scottish athletes have really made their mark over the last couple of years and I know we can look forward with genuine hope of athletics medals at the Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia, next summer.

Come the Tokyo Olympics, Team GB & NI will be replete with Scottish talent in what I fervently hope will be their last appearance in a British vest in the Olympics, because they will be representing an independent Scotland in 2024. Oh I wish...

The closure of Meadowbank Stadium last week reminded so many of us of the glory days of the Commonwealth Games in 1970, and to lesser extent in 1986. With Meadowbank going, there is now no Scottish outdoor venue that could host a full-scale international athletics meeting of serious international stature.

The Emirates Arena in Glasgow is world class and will hopefully host the very best in indoor athletics in the years to come, but while the likes of Aberdeen Sports Village, Grangemouth Stadium, Crownpoint and Scotstoun in Glasgow all have different very good outdoor facilities, we no longer have a genuine national athletics stadium.

The venues I have mentioned have done an excellent job of hosting athletics meetings and when Meadowbank comes back in 2020 it will have a top class track and field facility with a 500 seater stand. Perhaps that is the way ahead – why should we need to spend money on a new national athletics stadium when we have excellent regional facilities as far north as Inverness and as far south as Kilmarnock? Far better to spend the money on coaching and supporting our talented athletes than bricks and mortar.

None of these successes happened by accident. It took years of dedication by the athletes and hard work by coaches and local club officials and the people who lead scottishathletics, which just happened to deservedly win the Governing Body of the Year at the Team Scotland awards in September.

Former First Minister Jack McConnell handed out the award that night, and then became Honorary President of scottishathletics the following Monday.

I have just one suggestion to make to Jack – please change the name to Scottishathletics with a capital S, because this is one sport in Scotland that deserves to be in big letters.