Glasgow ‘Super 8’ Competition – Scotstoun, 7 July 2010

An Edinburgh area Under 15 team was invited to compete as part of the Super 8 competition at Scotstoun.
 8 boys and 8 girls from Edinburgh AC and Lasswade AAC, representing Team Edinburgh, competed against 7 teams from other areas in Scotland.
Each athlete took part in one track event, one field event and one relay with points based on performance, like a decathlon, rather than on places.

The competition moved at a fast pace with all the events except the medley relay over within an hour and a half. The whole competition was being filmed by Channel 4 and, as well as being introduced individually and shown on the big screen, a few of our athletes were interviewed after their events. The athletes all enjoyed the experience, even though some of them had to take part in events that they didn’t usually do.

After that part of the competition was over they had about an hour of watching top athletes take part in the Inter City Super 8 event before getting ready for their final event – an eight person mixed medley relay. This consisted of 4 x 100m (2 girls and 2 boys)then 2 x 200 (girls) and finally 2 x 400m (boys). Before the relay we were leading the competition by a narrow margin, ahead of Glasgow East and Glasgow West so the overall result very much rested on this final event. Our four 100m sprinters gave us a good lead which was consolidated by our 200m runners. It was then left to our two 400m runners to keep us in front – even with Glasgow East’s superstar Ahmed Hassan closing down on the final lap team captain, Hamish Campbell, held on to win by about 10 metres and take overall victory in the competition. After the last event the athletes were presented with medals and a cup and once again faced the cameras for some interviews.

Team:
Kyle Hogg (100m, Long Jump and 100m in Medley Relay)
Luca Vita (100m, Shot and 4 x 100)
Coran Darling (300m, Long Jump and 400m in Medley Relay)
Hamish Campbell (300m, Shot and 400m in Medley Relay)
Cameron Gilmour (1500m, Javelin and 4 x 100)
Michael Cameron (1500m, Javelin and 4 x 100)
Ben Black (80m Hurdles, High Jump and 4 x 100)
Gareth Fleming (80m Hurdles, Javelin and 4 x 100)
Emma McGinty (100m, Shot and 100m in Medley Relay)
Rachel Robertson (100m, Shot and 100m in Medley Relay)
Kirsty McKean (300m, Long Jump and 200m in Medley Relay)
Lizzie Wells (300m, Long Jump and 200m in Medley Relay)
Kerry-Ann Hastings (75m Hurdles, High Jump and 4 x 100)
Ellen Kristofferston (75m Hurdles, High Jump and 4 x 100)
Rosie Wilson (1500m, Javelin and 4 x 100)
Ali Hunter (1500m, Javelin and 4 x 100)

It was a fantastic experience for our young athletes – watching and taking part in a high level competition that was being covered by Channel 4.
Finally a big thank you to all the parents and families who came to support, to Allan, Jonathon, and Matthew for helping with the team and to Yvonne and Jamie for organising everything.

 Thanks also to John Glen who came along to take photos – as well as the one above you can see more on his website at www.glenphotography.co.uk
(Keith Ridley)