by Stuart Weir
The Müller Indoor Grand Prix, Feb 15, 2020, photo by Getty Images / British Athletics
The Müller Indoor Grand Prix is the fifth of seven meets on the 2020 World Indoor Tour. We are grateful to have Stuart Weir at the meet to give us his view of this excellent event.
The Müller Indoor Grand Prix in Glasgow, held in a packed Emirates Arena, provided a magnificent 4 hours of entertainment for the crowd.
The program started with 6 youth relay races for local clubs. Remember that local track and field clubs are the lifeblood of the sport in UK. The relay races for boys and girls aged 13-17 gave children and young athletes the opportunity to run on the same track as their heros. With sprints, sprint hurdles, 400, 800 and 1500m races as well as long jump, high jump and pole vault it was a varied program.
Glasgow is an athletics city which last year hosted the European Indoors in the same arena, the Commonwealth Games in 2014 and the Anniversary Games (Diamond League) the same year. This event used to be annual but now alternates with Birmingham. Next week-end the same arena will host the UK Indoor Championships.
The promoters had assembled a stellar field with Double Olympic and Quadruple World Champion, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce topping the bill. There were the two best Male pole vaulters in the world and two reigning British World Champions.
The athletes delivered. Shelly-Ann duly delivered beating the reigning World Indoor Champion, Murielle Ahoure. Mondo Duplantis set a new world record in the pole vault. There were two Scottish winners – important to the local crowd – in Laura Muir and Jemma Reekie. The women’s 60m hurdles saw the first three separated by 3 hundredths of a second. There was high drama in the women’s 400 with the two favorites tangling legs and falling.
Excitement, drama and value for money. The event was also on live terrestrial TV, giving the sport some necessary good publicity. And will the closeness of the crowd to the athletes there were always opportunities for autographs and selfies.
The sponsor Müller was not only giving away yoghurt to spectators on arrival but offering a deliver-to-your-seat service.
Müller was giving out Yoghurt at the meeting, even delivering it to your seat! photo by Stuart Weir
