TAKE two parts athletic prowess, add a dash of Teutonic efficiency and Jamie Williamson has all the ingredients to be another part of what is already a formidable era for Scottish athletics. As the son of Graham and Carole Williamson, middle distance excellence runs in the family when it comes to this 20-year-old. Graham, who used to mix it with Steve Cram, Seb Coe and Steve Ovett, still holds a clutch of Scottish senior and UK Under-20 records while Carole, nee Bradford, used to battle the world’s best over cross country races in an England vest during the 1980s.

But that is only part of the story. Born in Macclesfield, young Jamie was raised in the German town of Herzogenrauch near Nurnberg.

It is a town famed for being the home of Adidas and Puma, the twin sportwear manufacturing firms formed by brothers Adolf and Rudolf Dassler, where his father moved on from athletics to a career designing the sports equipment of the future for Adidas. Jamie has already served an internship there. “At the moment my dad is in the futures department, but he was in tennis for quite a while and then running before that,” Williamson told Herald Sport. ”When Andy Murray’s kit was designed by Adidas, I think he used to meet him quite a few times at tournaments and everything.”

Currently in his third year studying sports management at Loughborough University, such a career could well lie in wait for Jamie in years to come. But first he wants to give running everything he has got.

Something of a late starter – up until the age of 14 he was more preoccupied playing youth club football out in Germany – Williamson soon found himself winning various national age group athletics titles in his adopted country. While he has never previously been in Edinburgh, this Saturday will change all that, as he attempts to bring home the Stewart Cup for Scotland in the 4x1km mixed relay at Holyrood Park.

His team-mates include his close family friend Jake Wightman, alongside Steph Pennycook and Steph Twell, with Ben Potrykus, Mhairi Hendry, Sol Sweeney and Philippa Millage in the Scotland ‘B’ team. That listing doesn’t even include Laura Muir, who runs for Great Britain.

“It is exciting,” says Jamie. “It is going to be my first senior international event so I am really looking forward to just savouring the whole thing. I have never actually been to Edinburgh, I have only ever been to Glasgow, but I am enjoying being part of it all, because there is a really good scene in athletics in Scotland right now. Just watching the likes of Callum Hawkins, Laura Muir and Andy Butchart and all those guys, it is great to feel part of it.

“I always knew my dad was an athlete – but I didn’t understand too much about his times and stuff like that until I started running,” he added. ”That was when I learned just how good he was. My mum was also a pretty good runner too and I didn’t really realise that either.

“I guess it is a bit of both – it bolsters my self-belief but also gives me something to live up to. It is very useful having them here because they can help me out with my training whenever am home. They are always there to give advice and very interested in my races but at the same time there is a bit of expectation sometimes.”

While Williamson Jnr was somewhat distanced from German culture as he attended an international school, they do things their own way out there: on a number of occasions his prize for winning a German youth race was a keg of the local pilsner. While his preference is to get to a level to compete for Great Britain, there is still an opening for him to represent Germany at IAAF level. While competition is fierce in the 1500m - the likes of Chris O’Hare, Josh Kerr and Jake Wightman formed a Scottish one-two-three in last year’s British trials for the World Championships - such an eventuality might not mean that he is automatically ineligible for Scotland honours when it comes to events such as the Commonwealth Games.

“I didn’t actually get into athletics until I was 14 when I started doing it for the school,” said Jamie, a fan of both Rangers and Nurnberg, a team he jokes are in some ways similar to the Ibrox side as they are currently fallen upon hard times in the second division. “I always just played football before then. I was always on the wing because of my speed or up front and they would send long balls and I would chase after them.

“But if I could do something through my running that would be great,” added Williamson, now coached by his dad’s old mentor George Gandy. “At the moment I am close to being a full time athlete. I have just got a few lectures a week. So I can train twice a day, do everything I need to do and if I could keep it going it would be great.

“I could still run for Germany if I wanted to, because I have not done any IAAF competitions,” he added. “They have approached me a few times before but I just want to leave my options open until I knew what I wanted to do. I do want to try to run for Britain, but I am just leaving it open and seeing what happens. I would love to get to an Olympics one day, that is the dream, but it is going to take a lot of work.”