IT’S Friday afternoon in Rio and Callum and Derek Hawkins are sitting on a sofa at the British School, awaiting the arrival of their parents at the team’s training hub for a brief reunion outside the barricaded balloon of the Athletes Village. One dressed in white, one in blue. Very much individuals these brothers, but also very much alike.

Three years separate them in age. They will be pushed shoulder to shoulder today. As family outings go, a trip en masse to the Olympics is incomparable. And it will be quite the sight for their kin here and back in Renfrewshire to see them adjoined on the streets of this city as the marathon unfolds on the final day of the Games.

“I don’t really think it’s going to sink in until we get on the start line,” Callum confirms. “It’s all felt a bit surreal. It’s going to be huge. For the last year, we’ve been training with each other to get to the Olympics. We’ve seen what we’ve both sacrificed and I’ve seen the hurdles he’s had to go over, especially the most recent one. To see him on the start line will be amazing.”

That latter barrier has been a stress injury that had Derek troubled enough to pull out of last month’s European Championships. He is pain-free now, to the relief of both. Callum (pictured) can sympathise. Earning a scholarship in university in Indiana as a prodigious teen, he ground down his knee and was forced back whence he came.

Homesickness, the 24-year-old acknowledges, played a part. But also self-preservation. “With the whole NCAA system, the fact I’d have had to get a second knee surgery, there was high possibility I’d not come back from it. I might have busted my knee up for good. They need points to stay high in the standings and it’s a team thing. It’s really intense.”

He slipped seamlessly back into Kilbarchan, the local club where his father has helped maintain a thriving eco- system. And while Robert has coached both ever since, all three have learned from Steve Jones, the former world-record holder, who was instrumental in the younger Hawkins’ impressive outing in April’s London Marathon that showed no fear for the distance.

“There’s just that thought of having respect for it but not too much,” Jones told him. “I showed that in London. I maybe went a bit too quickly in the middle but it got me to be the top Brit overall, just having that controlled aggression.”

Tsegai Tewelde, the Eritrean refugee who has made Glasgow his home, was just behind that day. They will form their private Tartan Army in the Sambodromo and see how quickly they can march.

Top 10 would be a nice target, Callum says. “It’s definitely doable with the conditions, as I found out in Amsterdam. I was ninth in the Euros. But to make top 10 at a global event will be tough.”

There won’t be a dash afterwards to take in a few sports more or to cheer on friends old and new. Their Games will be over almost as soon as it started. They hope it will have been worth the wait.

“The Closing Ceremony is going to be five hours after the marathon,” Callum adds. “I might be hobbling in.”

But they will not be the final Scots to line up in Brazil. That honour falls to Grant Ferguson, whose mountain bike discipline will start and finish on this concluding day.

The rest of the omnipotent British cycling team are already partied out and the 22-year-old has yet to begin. “There were quite a few of the cyclists around the apartments,” he says. “It was good to chat to them but then get on with focusing on my own performance.”

Ferguson is from Peebles, where the mud and trails seemed a natural outlet for his competitive drive. The grazes on each of his knees suggest an ambivalence to the accompanying perils. “I’d always race my mates,” he says. Down the street, back and forth to school, and at the dedicated centre for the sport at nearby Glentress.

“I just raced more, got a bit better at it, and now here we are. It’s all come mainly from having that on my doorstep. Even now, when I’m home, I go for a ride.”

Now racing for a pro team in the Netherlands, his prowess with the pedals has taken him far and wide. The circuit will be challenging, he says, with enough rocks to crush the ambitions of a few.

Ranked just inside the top 30, he has been taken here with one eye on the future but is keen to broaden his view. With fewer riders than on the regular circuit, there may be gains available by diving right in and then working out the lay of the land.

“That’s the thing. You can take a few risks. At the start, you can try it but you might crash off. I’ve been at World Cup races where you might go from 50th into the top 10 just by pulling something off at the start with a few fancy moves. And a little bit of luck helps.”