Lack of teams foils Glasgow Super8 event

The Super8 athletics competition due to be staged in Glasgow next week has been cancelled due to a lack of teams.

The competition, which was to pitch eight teams of athletes from cities across Britain against each other, had been due to take place at the Scotstoun Stadium next Thursday.

But UK Athletics said financial concerns meant a number of city councils could not guarantee their participation.

"In the current economic climate, some of the participating councils were unable to confirm their involvement in time to stage the event to the standard we have targeted and to give athletes time to plan their competition diaries," UKA chief executive Niels de Vos said. He added that discussions over the format of the competition for future seasons would take place later this summer.

De Vos said: "There continues to be a high uptake for the concept, and we look forward to making an announcement on future plans very soon.

The Super8 was launched in Cardiff in 2009, but the inaugural event was overshadowed by a sponsorship row which saw athletes Kelly Sotherton, Hannah England and Greg Rutherford withdraw.

Meanwhile, disgraced Olympic sprint champion Justin Gatlin will remain barred from major European races despite being invited to this weekend's Diamond League meeting in the United States.

Gatlin, who won the 100 metres gold medal at the 2004 Athens Olympics but was suspended for four years after a positive doping test in 2006, was cleared for his first major race since the ban when he was offered a spot in tomorrow's Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Oregon.

But European officials said they were not planning to change their stand against inviting athletes who had served long doping terms.

"Euromeetings, the organization representing Europe's top athletics meetings, will continue to recommend that members do not invite athletes who we believe causes disrepute to our meetings and our sport," said Rajne Soderberg, the group's president and organiser of the Stockholm Diamond League meeting.

Patrick Magyar, the organizer of the Zurich meet, offered a similar view, saying: "Eugene can invite who they want and we will do the same."

Tom Jordan, the director of the Prefontaine Classic, said the 29-year-old Gatlin had been invited because he had served his penalty. "We have a philosophy in this country that if you have paid your debt to society, then you are given a second chance and he will have second chance at the Prefontaine Classic," said Jordan.

Gatlin tested positive for the banned male sex hormone testosterone in 2006, but has consistently denied knowingly taking banned substancs.He is eligible to compete under both international and US athletics rules but has run only in low key meetings since his ban expired last July.

He had hoped the Prefontaine invitation would open the door for major races in Europe as he tries to make the US team for this year's world championships.