Scottish athletes eye Hampden Diamond League boost

Mo Farah (left) and Usain Bolt are regular performers in Diamond League events. Picture: PA

The glittering IAAF ‘Grand Prix’, launched in 2010 to replace the Golden League series of events around the globe, uses London’s Olympic Stadium as its UK venue, but that will be out of commission over the next two years as it is reconfigured into a new football/athletics stadium.

Scottish and UK Athletics are in discussions with Glasgow City Council and the Commonwealth Games over the potential to move the UK leg to Scotland, where, with leading athletes Usain Bolt, Mo Farah, David Rudisha and Jessica Ennis among regular performers, it could prove to be a high-quality test for the new Hampden Park track and field arena being prepared for Glasgow 2014.

Helping to launch the countdown to the Commonwealth Games a year out, one of Scotland’s most exciting young prospects, long-jumper Jade Nimmo, insisted that it would provide Scottish athletes with a major boost ahead of the Games.

“It is quite scary to think we are now just one year away to competing in front of 50,000 at Hampden, but exciting at the same time,” said the 22-year-old.

“We don’t get the chance in Scotland to compete in front of crowds like that and even at the British Championships in Birmingham last weekend, where the stadium was full [capacity is under 13,000], and the atmosphere was incredible with the music and people really getting behind you, but that was still nowhere near what we’ll experience at Hampden. I know they’re hoping to bring a meeting to Hampden next summer, and trying to fill the stadium, mostly with schoolchildren, and that would be brilliant. It can be pretty unnerving I think to experience something like that when you haven’t before, so it would give us an idea of what that kind of athletics crowd will be like, and be a big help, I think, to our hopes of being successful.”

Nimmo was one of the Scottish athletes at Hampden for Scotland’s World Cup qualifier with Wales in March, an effort by Scottish Athletics to give athletes a taste of what is to come. Nimmo said: “It was cold but it was fantastic. It kind of gave me shivers, but in a good way. They’re going to build the track up quite a bit higher than the football pitch is which will take us closer to the crowd, so we know it’s going to be pretty special.” Scottish Athletics is also considering shifting the 2014 Scottish Schools Athletics Championships to Hampden Park to ramp up the interest in and benefits of the Commonwealth Games in Scotland.

Nimmo has all but booked her place in Glasgow 2014. The Falkirk athlete is still competing at under-23 level but on ten occasions this year has surpassed the long-jump standard for Scotland’s Commonwealth Games team, of six metres 20, and is bidding to challenge her own best of 6m47, a leap that in Delhi 2010 would be a silver. A first batch of athletes will be confirmed in September with places left for others to qualify by next June. “It is never guaranteed until it comes out in the press, but I have done all I can,” she added. “I’ve got to keep working but it’s an incredible goal to aim for.

“The London Olympics have really opened people’s eyes to athletics, including in field events with Greg Rutherford winning gold in the long-jump, and with people like Usain Bolt and Jessica Ennis in Glasgow there will be lots of interest in what’s going on in the new Hampden athletics stadium.

“Hopefully, there will be lots of support for us Scots, and going for a medal in what will be my first major championships is a huge inspiration now.”