AN ATHLETICS coach who helped one of his athletes to world championship glory has picked up an award at a prestigious national ceremony.

Fife AC's Steve Doig was presented with the Coach of the Year prize - ahead of Scotland men's football head coach, Steve Clarke, and Caledonia Gladiators basketball coach, Gareth Murray - at the Scottish Sports Awards 2023 on Thursday.

Steve leads a training group at Pitreavie Athletics Centre, which includes T20 classification, 1500 metre para athletes Ben Sandilands, Owen Miller and Steven Bryce, as well as Dalgety Bay's Caleb McLeod, who won 800m bronze at this year's Commonwealth Youth Games.

West Fife track star Owen, who memorably won Paralympic gold on his Games debut at the delayed Tokyo event in 2021, ran for Great Britain in the World Para Athletics Championships final in the summer, alongside Fife AC team-mate Ben, from Kirkcaldy, and Steven, whose club is Victoria Park City of Glasgow.

In a dramatic race, Ben, who was shortlisted for Young Athlete of the Year, stormed to a stunning gold medal.

The achievements of his athletes saw Steve shortlisted for Coach of the Year, after he had been named as Para Performance Coach of the Year, as well as being nominated for Development Coach of the Year, at the scottishathletics and jogscotland 4J Studios Annual Awards.

Hosted by sportscotland and Team Scotland, the Scottish Sports Awards celebrated the success of individuals, schools, clubs and teams across the whole of Scottish sport, across 14 award categories.

Steve was nominated alongside Clarke, who has guided Scotland to a second successive European Championships, and Murray, who led the Gladiators to the British Basketball League (BBL) Trophy in 2022/23.

Organisers said of Steve's nomination: "Steve's athlete-centred approach allows athletes to develop and succeed within their discipline and pathway.

"His commitment, expertise and inclusive style is integral to his athletes' success and enjoyment in the sport."

In a video posted by sportscotland on social media after Steve's award win, he said: "You just want to get the best out of every athlete you can.

"It's just identifying what athletes can achieve, and trying to help them reach their targets."

Owen, Ben and Steven also featured, with Owen commenting: "I went to Tokyo two years ago and got a gold medal.

"Ever since I went to Steve's group, they've helped me through a lot. He thinks of everybody else. He's good, he's really thoughtful, and he helps people out, helps the whole group out."

Ben said: "He's good, very encouraging, really motivating.

"I think he gives up quite a lot of his time to come down and help train, and put on sessions for us, so we can do them."

Steven added: "I went to France with him. He's good, he's good to work with.

"He makes me run better, run faster."

David Ovens, chair of scottishathletics, said: "When you look across all of the athletes, Steve doesn't see the disabilities. He sees the individual, and the potential within each of the individuals. He's fantastic, he's very enthusiastic.

"The group really, really like Steve and Steve's got this thing where, if you achieve something, he'll give a coconut out to the athletes who have achieved that, so all of the athletes here want one of Steve's coconuts!"

In Ben's category, swimmer, Matthew Ward, picked up the prize.

For a full list of winners, follow this link.

We'll have more on this story in this week's Press Sport.