GLASGOW'S £113 million Emirates Arena has hosted many top-flight events since it opened and this Saturday it will host yet another:
the 2013 Glasgow World Cup Gymnastics.
A star-studded line-up of the top artistic gymnasts has been confirmed for this, the UK's only round of the World Cup series.
It is one of 10 artistic World Cup events being staged this year under the auspices of the Federation Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG). It will be the final major gymnastics event in Scotland ahead of next summer's Commonwealth Games extravaganza.
The gymnasts in action at the Emirates this weekend are doing so by invitation only, so an exceptionally high standard of competition is guaranteed.
Tickets sold out two weeks ago. The organisers last week confirmed over 5000 tickets had been snapped up, just as two final names were added to the list of gymnasts: Raer Theaker, a 16-year-old British star, and, from Germany, 23-year-old Andreas Toba.
Many eyes will be on Scotland's highly rated Dan Purvis, a three-time British senior champion who was part of the bronze-medal-winning GB team at London 2012. Purvis, his Olympic bronze-medal-winning compatriot Sam Oldham, and Ruby Harrold will be among those flying the British flag.
Facing up to them will be the 2012 World Cup champion Elizabeth Price, who returns with US team-mate, and World Championship parallel bars bronze-medal winner, John Orozco. The competition sees the male gymnasts competing across six items of apparatus and the women four.
The fact it has sold out swiftly, has pleased the organisers. Glasgow Life, which operates the Arena, has worked with British Gymnastics and EventScotland to bring the show to Glasgow this year and last.
Councillor Archie Graham, Glasgow Life's chairman and executive member for the Commonwealth Games, said: "Glasgow is the only city in the UK to host a gymnastics World Cup round this year. This reinforces our position as one of the top 10 sporting cities in the world."
EventScotland's chief operating officer, Paul Bush, said that with the "sold-out" notices going up at the Emirates it was clear there is a "huge appetite and enthusiasm" for sporting events in the city.
Next summer, of course, we shall see the full flowering of this appetite and enthusiasm for sport boxing to cycling, when the Commonwealth Games begin.
l 2013 Glasgow World Cup Gymnastics is at Emirates Arena this Saturday.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article