30 April 2010

Super8 2010 looks set to provide Britain’s top athletes with a key stepping stone on their way to European Championship success with this season’s fixture on Wednesday 7 July at Scotstoun, Glasgow ready to provide a high class competition opportunity.

Last year’s UKA’s flagship competition, held in Cardiff witnessed some superb early season performances and was starting block for many of the sport’s success stories last year. And with a stellar field including quality overseas athletes set to line up in 2010 the opportunity is there for more athletes to show their form just three weeks before the summer’s major championships in Barcelona.

Before taking her first world medal – an 800m bronze in Berlin – Manchester team captain Jenny Meadows (Trevor Painter) used the top quality competition at Super8 2009 to stretch her sprint legs over 400m.

Meadows, who has since added world indoor silver to her tally, was second to Victoria Barr but looked to be one of the world’s fastest finishers when taking her World championship medal in Berlin.

Meanwhile, Barr (Ayo Falola) used Super8 as a stepping stone into the Great Britain and Northern Ireland team for the European Team Championships and World Championships and is a key part of the women’s 4x400m set-up.

Heptathlete Louise Hazel, who undoubtedly put out her best ever performance on a world stage at the World Championships in Berlin, also featured in Super8-09. She took the opportunity to hone her 110m hurdles technique alongside Olympic bronze medallist Tasha Danvers and went onto a breakthrough summer.

Yorkshire born athletes Richard Strachan (Stephen Ball) and Charlene Thomas (Aaron Thomas) both benefitted from early season wins at Super8. Strachan was first past the post in Cardiff in the men’s 400m ahead of World 4x400m silver medallist Rob Tobin (Todd Bennett) before turning his sights on the European Team Championships, while Thomas took great confidence after storming to victory in the women’s 1500m.

It was the first win of her summer campaign and she went on to win the Aviva World trials and UK Championships in July, an incredible feat against the best runners in the country, securing a ticket to make her World Championships debut in Berlin.