Yvonne issues rallying call ahead of big event

May 6 2009 by Andrew Weston, Wishaw Press

FORMER Commonwealth Gold medallist Yvonne Murray MBE has urged people to come out in numbers and show their support as Wishaw gets ready to host the inaugural Scottish Inter-Regional Athletic’s Championships this weekend.

Nearly 1000 athletes from around the country will gather at Wishaw Sports Centre on Saturday and Sunday (May 9 and 10) as Scottish Athletics looks to raise the standard of the country’s most promising athletes in the build up to the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games.

The two-day event, to be hosted by North Lanarkshire Leisure, begins on Saturday with an under-13 Superteams competition involving 57 teams of four athletes from throughout Scotland.

This will be followed by the Scottish Under-15 and Under-17 Championships, before Sunday‘s Under-20 and Senior Inter-Regional Championships take centre stage as part of a series of meetings this summer that form the new Scottish Athletic’s Golden League.

“Wishaw Sports Centre has got the opening event of the new Golden League series and it is a great honour to be hosting it,” Murray told the Wishaw Press this week.

“This is my old training track and Tom McKean’s (former European 800m champion), so to think that top-class competition is coming back to Wishaw is fantastic.”

Murray was the last Scot to bring home a Commonwealth gold medal in a track event – winning the 10,000m race at the 1994 Games in Victoria, Canada.

Last October she began her role as Senior Athletic Development and Events Officer for North Lanarkshire Leisure and was influential in securing the staging of this weekend’s elite event.

Murray, an Olympic bronze medallist, continued: “It will be such a great weekend and we just hope that parents and friends from around Wishaw will come along and show their support.

“There are going to be a lot of local athletes taking part and it will be a chance for people in the area to watch top class athletic’s on their door step.”

She added: “The idea is to bring more and more events like this to Wishaw.”

In her new role, the 44-year-old has begun putting in place structures at grassroots level that she hopes can increase participation in the sport that would give youngsters the potential to become the very best in their chosen field. One such initiative is the Community Run, Jump and Throw club, an after-school club that bridge’s the gap between the early years of school and the more formal level of club athletics.

“There is a lot of negativity with people saying that participation levels are dropping,” Murray said

“But at the end of the day we do have a lot of talented kids and it is a case of making sure we don’t lose them to the sport.

“To go from school to the athletics clubs is quite a big jump but the Community Run, Jump and Throw clubs in North Lanarkshire can make a difference.

“It is just a case of making sure that kids are aware of what is out there for them.”

She added: “That is my job to make sure that the kids who are interested in athletics have the pathway in place.

“If they want to pursue and become Olympic champions then a pathway is there for them.”

Next month Murray will take charge of the Lanarkshire athletics team that will represent the county at the 2009 International Children’s Games in Athens (see page 76).

In 2011 the Games will be held in North Lanarkshire.