Tonight was a great night in the
athletics calendar, both for spectators and competitors alike as it was the
Welsh Athletics International. Which is an evening competition held at Cardiff
International Sports Stadium, with the purpose of giving athletes going to the
Commonwealth Games one last chance to race. Also it’s a chance for family,
friends and fans to send them off in style. But these weren’t the only goodbyes
being said last night, because it was Welsh athlete Christian Malcom’s final
race in Wales. After a phenomenal career in sprinting that has spanned decades, Christian
has decided to finally hang up his spikes, and I was glad to have been there to
watch the momentous occasion of his last race on Welsh soil.
The Commonwealth Games are almost upon us
and teams are making their way, if not already having arrived at their
preparatory training camps. The Welsh athletics team for Glasgow are heading to
Portugal in a few days time before descending on Scotland. But other teams such
as New Zealand and Australia have decided to make Cardiff their pre-games camp
destination, so it really was an international event at Cardiff Athletic’ s
home stadium last night with all of these teams in attendance. The program was jam-packed with what would turn out to
be exciting performances, records were broken and excitement for prospective medals in the games really started to escalate.
Although not all Commonwealth selected
hopefuls could attend the meet, highlights for the fans included javelin
thrower Lee Doran, shot-putter Ryan Spencer- Jones, Brett Morse discus thrower
and the Welsh athletics women’s relay team. A new Welsh record was broken in
the men’s Anne Hill commemorative 1 mile race, which was really exciting to
see. Towards the end of the evening, Christian ran his final Welsh race on the
first leg of the men’s 4 x 100m relay. Starting the Welsh team off on the
victory that they would later achieve in the event. After finishing his leg giving an emotional farewell speech to the crowd, before being mobbed by fans and well wishers.
I’ve known Christian since I was a teenager
and can honestly speak of what an exceptionally kind and incredibly talented
man he is. Over the years I’ve met hundreds of different athletes, but I’m yet
to find anyone who gives their time and advice so charitably and who always has
a smile for you. I know he’ll be sorely missed from the sport but whilst we
might have lost a competitor, hopefully we’ll have gained an amazing ambassador
for the sport. If the enthusiasm of the children and young people spectating tonight is anything
to go by, we’ll have an inspired new generation of athletes coming through in
no time. But for this generation going to the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games,
Good Luck!
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