29 June 2010

With the 2010 Super8 event almost upon us and Glasgow’s Scotstoun stadium poised to mark its reopening on Wednesday 7 July with the high quality event, we’ve put together some super-great facts on why this year’s Super8 event is a can’t miss opportunity for athletes and spectators alike.

The Super8 Competition Director Cherry Alexander, who is coordinating the 2010 edition picks out her favourite parts about Super8 2010 and why this year’s event will set the bar even higher for future years.

Athletes!

Last year’s fields were superb in Super8, but we started looking at other ways we could enhance the competition opportunity for UK athletes as well as making it even more exciting for spectators and team supporters. This year we have secured 16 international athletes who will take up two guest slots in each city team, giving our athletes some world class opposition, as well as helping some of our developing team members get valuable input from the international experience.

Schools Super8

Once again there wil be a Schools Super8 competition taking place before the main programme on Wednesday 7 July featuring youngsters from the area, and their medley relay which decides the final team placings will take place halfway through the senior competition programme.  This last year has seen hundreds of Schools adopt the Super8 competition format for use in intra and inter school competition. The best part has been seeing how young athletes enjoy taking part in the same competition format as their senior team mates – and seeing the London Youth Games pilot Super8 for athletics last week shows it is being adopted all over the country.

Competition providers

It is so positive that a number of national competition organisers are now discussing using Super8 as a new format for their existing events and I’ m looking forward to seeing some of the well established fixtures in the UK take on board the format in future seasons. As we all know competition formats have to change with the times and hopefully with Super8 there is a set format that we can help anyone adapt.

Innovations

I love the fact that Super8 helps to bring a team ethos into our individual sport! Innovation in rules and scoring has helped us underline this even more. Last years Ace card has been continued this year with the team managers able to play it against their strongest athlete and claim double points . Likewise in both long jump and high hump events the team distance or height achieved will be aggregated to ensure men’s and women’s performances count towards the same total. Any athlete setting a PB will receive additional points  –  it all goes toward making sure the team performs together and supports each other through the two hours.

Prize Money

All athletes will receive prize money in their events with £500 going to the winner. It is our aim to be able to offer a strong competition format to UK athletes but to also be able to give them a share in an overall prize fund. The standards for Super8 will remain high and athletes can be rewarded for playing their part in this superbly entertaining evening.

Relays

The top four teams in the Medley relay will receive a share of an extra prize fund to ensure that the competition is fought for until the ‘bitter end’  making it start to finish action and end to end excitement!

Coaches

Coaches have been involved at all stages and it has been brilliant to see the event fully supported by the coaching fraternity as the fields for Super8 2010 have come together. It means a great deal to have a competition format that coaches to Olympic champions are as eager to have their athletes take part in as well as coaches to young developing athletes. All of them can see a great competitive opportunity available as well as a key stepping stone on the way to other events this summer.

The Cities

Super8 has given athletics another way of engaging with new partners and supporters including the Cities who have backed their own Super8 teams for involvement in this year’s event! This years city teams comprise Glasgow, Birmingham, Cardiff, Gateshead, London, Manchester, Plymouth and Sheffield. Some of which are long standing members of the athletics infrastructure, others like Plymouth are new found friends, but what is great is that the added support of the Local Authorities across the UK are combining their efforts to support Super8, seeing the massive potential on offer.

For tickets visit www.uka.org.uk/super8