'Everything is possible, provided everyone pulls in the same direction' - UK coach McFarlane

Mike McFarlane shouldn't really need any introduction. A former European indoor champion in the 60m dash and an Olympic silver medallist at the Los Angeles Games, he was one of the British sprinters of his generation.

Nor should anyone really require an incentive to listen to McFarlane talk about athletics. His competitive career has been followed by an equally accomplished coaching one, so much that last year he was chosen by UK Athletics to take charge of the British relay team.

Yet, it would seem that not everyone sees it that way. Recently invited by the MAAA to oversee the final preparations of the local relay teams in their bid to qualify for Andorra, the number of coaches who took an interest was unfortunately low.

"There are some coaches who think that they can't learn anything new or feel that I can't teach them anything as I come from a different background which has nothing in common with Malta," he said, trying to explain this behaviour perhaps to himself as much as to anyone else.

"That's not the case. I haven't come here to preach and I don't have all the answers. What I do have is a theory and methods which I believe they work."

McFarlane is refreshingly honest, setting aside the diplomatic rhetoric that seems standard on such visits. He is also a keen observer who takes little time to analyse a situation. Typical, one might add, to someone who made his name as a sprinter.

Best of all, he doesn't limit himself to identifying a problem but helpfully also put forward a possible solution.

"Malta is a small country, so the set-up that you have is adequate."

Which, in other words, means good but could be better.

"What you have to look at is finding ways of getting young people interested in track and field," he said. "It is very difficult - we have the same problem in the UK - because you're up against other sports like football.

"But, from what I've seen, you're doing the right thing in starting small and working your way up. If you try to have great things at the beginning there's going to be a problem."

Lately, Malta has been blessed with prospective sprinters.

Athletes like Darren Gilford and young Jeandre Mallia have done well in re-defining the boundaries of local athletics. Yet, they have to make a breakthrough in the international arena.

Does Malta have what it takes to produce athletes capable of doing so?

McFarlane said: "All things are possible and that's the honest truth. You have good weather and they say that the best sprinters come from the south in America because of the weather."

Weather alone, however, isn't going to fashion an athlete.

"I think that the coaches have to sit down together and maybe model a sprinter based on what is available.

"They have to think outside the books, try to pick other people's ideas and look at what's right for the individual in that event."

The moral of which is that, for Maltese athletics to move forward, everyone has to pull in the same direction. This also happens to reflect McFarlane's mentality best of all.

The OBE that he was awarded in 2001 wasn't really for his sporting achievements but rather for the work that he carries out in the community... a community that is currently bidding for the 2012 Olympic Games.

Coming from East London he is more than aware of what this would mean to the area.

"Huge," he says of the possible impact of the Olympic Games being held in London.

"It would change the inner city and bring so many opportunities to people.

"Secondly, the majority of the British athletics squad is from London and that tells you that the talent pool is from the area.

"So it would bring a lot of good things to East London, it would bring a lot of good things to London and it would bring good things to the whole of the UK."