INTERNATIONAL athletics will return to Glasgow with the biggest outdoor match in the city's history, Great Britain versus the USA, at the refurbished Scotstoun track on August 30, and the governing body of US track and field has guaranteed that it will send a credible team with some of the biggest names in the sport.
The SPAR British Challenge was one of four televised meetings announced yesterday in a package which signifies the resolution of much of the in-fighting which has torn the sport apart over the past year.
UK Athletics 98, which has replaced the bankrupt British Athletics Federation, announced that agreement had been reached with the administrators over ownership of the sport's commercial rights. The AAA of England has concluded a deal whereby their BUPA-sponsored championships will be the official UK trial for major championships - Europeans this year, worlds next year and 2001, and Olympics in 2000.
Full details of the Glasgow meeting have yet to be outlined, but Penny Snowden, director of API Sponsorship which has put the package together, confirmed the meeting will take place just a week after the conclusion of the European Championships in Budapest, when many of the leading US athletes will be in Europe for the grand prix season.
''We are very keen to come to Glasgow, and it will be GB v USA,'' she said. ''We have some minor details to conclude, but Glasgow has made a huge effort to put this package together and we will be happy to bring the USA match to the city.''
Scotland's former international miler, Frank Clement, acting head of Glasgow's community recreation services, confirmed that additional seating will supplement the Scotstoun stand to at least 4000. A special Jumbotron-style screen will be installed, and local development events will be staged for Scottish athletes, replicating major meetings in Europe.
The other events announced yesterday, are: July 19: BUPA Games (Gateshead); July 24, 25, 26: BUPA AAA championships and European trials (Birmingham); August 2: British Grand Prix (Sheffield).
Channel 4 will remain the sport's TV partner for the next three years. They are to deliver 7.5 hours of live coverage, in addition to 12 weekly 30-minute programmes beginning in June, and to be screened at lunchtime on Sundays.
Jonathan Ridgeon, the former international hurdler who is helping promote the Glasgow meeting, said: ''There will most definitely be some of the top stars at Scotstoun. Gone are the days when fields are thin. We have had discussions with Craig Masback (head of the US athletics body) and he has agreed to deliver that.''
Alan Pascoe, the former European and Commonwealth 400m hurdles champion, has just sold his stake in API for #5m, and his new company, Fast Track, will help promote the meetings on a commission-only basis - a further sign of the sport's revitalisation.
The event will rekindle the era of the Ibrox Sports, fore-runner of events on the modern grand prix circuit. Then, the biggest international names - like Olympic 1500 metres champion Jack Lovelock, and world mile record-holder Sydney Wooderson - were regular attenders.
Glasgow's acting director of Parks and Recreation, Brian Porteous, said: ''We are absolutely delighted to have attracted top-flight athletics back in Glasgow, and we hope this is just a preparatory step to bringing the Kelvin Hall back into play for an international event this winter.''
There is a tacit understanding that the leading UK competitors will be available, with leading European agent, Robert Wagner, who represents Colin Jackson, Denise Lewis and Allison Curbishley, saying: ''British athletics has staged some fantastic events in the past, and with this new set-up we are confident that British meets will once again be among the best in the world.''
However, it was the discredited Andy Norman who introduced the inflated pay packages which help break the sport when he was promoting in Britain, and he now acts for many top UK athletes.
The sport will watch with interest to see if his clients, who include world triple jump record-holder Jonathan Edwards, and European Commonwealth javelin champion Steve Backley, are supportive.
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