18 May 2010

Super8 athletics, the innovative athletics competition format devised by UKA has been selected for inclusion in this year’s Balfour Beatty London Youth Games programme as a development event.

Europe’s biggest annual youth sports event will conclude with the finals weekend taking place at the National Sports Centre, Crystal Palace on 3-4 July. Around 50,000 youngsters representing 33 London borough teams are expected to have participated in the 2010 Games across 30 sports.

Super8 athletics will take place at Crystal Palace on 19th June complimented by a standard track and field athletics programme in the finals weekend on 4th July.

Although the development events will not count towards the overall Jubilee Cup standings, their inclusion is with a view to being included in the main London Youth Games programme in the future.

Super8 athletics is a quick-fire team-based format for track and field which was successfully piloted by UKA in 2009 and will return on Wednesday 7 July as the inaugural event for the revamped Scotstoun Stadium in Glasgow..

UKA Chief Executive Niels de Vos said: “Super8 athletics holds huge appeal for young people, both as participants and as spectators. A two-hour team environment – with every individual performance counting towards team totals  –  that provides the type of excitement that football, rugby and Twenty20 enjoy.

“I am delighted that the London Youth Games will include Super8 as a development sport in its 2010 programme. I am sure the young athletes who take part in the event will find Super8 to be a really exciting experience of competitive athletics.”