29 May 2009

Craig Pickering will compete for London North at UKA’s inaugural Super8 athletics competition, to be held at the Cardiff International Sports Arena on 10 June.

The exciting two hour City versus City concept is also acting as a final selection event for the forthcoming European Team Championships which will be held on 20-21 June in Leira, Portugal.

Pickering won gold at the European event in its previous guise as the European Cup in Munich in 2007 and is optimistic that the excitement of the Super8 competition can inspire him to further international success.

The World Championships sprint relay bronze medallist said: “I’m really pleased UKA have emphasised the importance of strong domestic competition by creating Super8. The fact that it doubles up as selection for the European Team Championships makes this competition even more appealing to me because I won the 100m at the European Cup in 2007 and want to compete and win there again. ”

Amongst Pickering’s opponents in the men’s 100m is GB 4x100m team-mate Christian Malcolm who is the men’s captain for home team, Cardiff. Other leading British athletes that will line up on the night include Olympic 400m hurdles bronze medallist Tasha Danvers, UK Indoor 800m champion Jenny Meadows and long Olympians Chris Tomlinson and Greg Rutherford, who will go head to head in a high quality long jump contest.

Sky Sports are broadcasting the event. More big names will be announced in the coming days.

Tickets are now on sale at £5 (seating) or £3 (standing) for adults, U16s are free, provided they are accompanied by a paying adult. Tickets can be purchased at www.uka.org.uk/super8 or by calling the ticket hotline on 0844 844 0808.