Aviva International Match

The facade of Kelvin Hall – the meeting's venue since 1988.

The Aviva International Match is an annual indoor track and field athletics meeting which takes place in late January in Glasgow, Scotland. The televised competition is the first major indoor event in the United Kingdom's athletics calendar. It has been held at the Kelvin Hall International Sports Arena since 1988. It will move to the National Indoor Sports Arena after the 2014 Commonwealth Games.

The International Match is an international team competition, with representatives typically competing for five different squads: Great Britain, a select "World" team, and three other countries. In each athletic event, athletes score points for their team depending on performance and the team with the greatest number of points at the end of all competitions is declared the winner.^[1] The last edition of the meeting was held on 29 January 2011 and broadcast by the BBC.^[2]

History

World record holder Mike Powell competed at the meeting in 1993.

The inaugural edition (primarily a contest between French and British athletes) was held in 1988 as the Dairy Crest International and it attracted participants such as Linford Christie and Butch Reynolds.^[3] The event was broadcast on ITV and was well received with around 2.75 million viewers in total.^[4] The Kelvin Hall became a prominent indoor venue, hosting the 1990 European Athletics Indoor Championships, and the 1990 Dairy Crest Games pitted a British team against a select team from East Germany.^[5] After a change of sponsor, the Pearl International Games featured a Great Britain vs Russia competition, as well as high calibre guest athletes including world champions Michael Johnson and Mike Powell.^[6] France returned as the rival team to the hosts in the 1995 and 1996 competitions.^[7][8]

The competition was sponsored by Norwich Union from 2000 to 2009. During this time, the international competition developed from a two-team to a multi-team contest: Swedish, Russian and German athletes competed against British athletes in 2002,^[9] and by 2004 it had become a five-way team contest (with athletes representing Great Britain, Russia, Sweden, Italy and a World select team). The indoor International Match became a testing ground for young and upcoming British athletes as the country's established international athletes often trained abroad or avoided indoor competition in favour of more prestigious outdoor competitions.^[10][11]

In spite of this, the event continued to attract many of Britain's prominent athletes as well as significant foreign competition; in 2003 the 60 metres featured the then-world record holder Tim Montgomery and Dwain Chambers, with world long jump champion Dwight Phillips and Olympic medallist Bernard Williams also on the programme.^[12]

Following the renaming of Norwich Union, the competition became known as the Aviva International Match in 2010.^[13] Great Britain won the 2010 competition, highlighted by Jessica Ennis' win in British record-time against reigning 60 metres hurdles world champion Lolo Jones.^[14] The 2011 competition saw a five-team competition between Germany, Great Britain, the United States, Sweden and a Commonwealth Select team, which was won by the German team. Helen Clitheroe produced a stadium record in the 3000 m, embarking on a solo run to victory.^[15]

Events

Aviva International Match events
Men	60 m	200 m	400 m	800 m		3000 m	60 m hurdles	Long jump	Triple jump		Pole vault
Women	60 m	200 m	400 m	800 m	1500 m	3000 m	60 m hurdles	Long jump		High jump	Pole vault

Meeting Records

Men

Event	Record	Athlete	Nationality	Date	Ref
60 m	6.51	Jason Livingston	United Kingdom	8 February 1992
200 m	20.67	John Regis	United Kingdom	11 February 1995
400 m	45.33	Danny Everett	United States	8 February 1992
800 m	1:46.22	Tom McKean	United Kingdom	4 March 1990
3000 m	7:40.99	Mo Farah	United Kingdom	31 January 2009
60 m hurdles	7.36	Colin Jackson	United Kingdom	12 February 1994
High jump	2.37 m	Vyacheslav Voronin	Russia	5 March 2000
Triple jump	17.20 m	Christian Olsson	Sweden	27 February 2007

Women

Event	Record	Athlete	Nationality	Date	Ref
60 m	7.04	Merlene Ottey	Jamaica	8 February 1992
200 m	22.81	Natalya Pomoshchnikova-Voronova	Russia	30 January 1993
400 m	50.62	Olga Zaytseva	Russia	28 January 2006
800 m	1:58.46	Maria Mutola	Mozambique	24 January 2004
1500 m	4:05.44	Jolanda Ceplak	Slovenia	9 March 2002
3000 m	8:52.31	Helen Clitheroe	United Kingdom	29 January 2011	[16]
60 m hurdles	7.74	Ludmila Engquist	Sweden	4 March 1990
Pole vault	4.76 m	Svetlana Feofanova	Russia	2 February 2003
		Yelena Isinbayeva	Russia	24 January 2004
Long jump	6.85 m	Galina Chistyakova	Soviet Union	3 March 1990

References

1. ^ Aviva International Match. Spikes Magazine. Retrieved on 2010-01-24.
2. ^ Jessica Ennis to captain GB at Glasgow indoor meeting. BBC Sport (2010-01-20). Retrieved on 2010-01-24.
3. ^ Gillon, Doug (1988-02-08). Christie and Reynolds Agree Glasgow's on the Right Track. Glasgow Herald. Retrieved on 2010-01-20.
4. ^ Gillon, Doug (1988-06-10). Winter Warmer for Scottish Indoor Athletics. Glasgow Herald. Retrieved on 2010-01-20.
5. ^ Sport in Brief – Athletics. Glasgow Herald (1990-01-24). Retrieved on 2009-01-20.
6. ^ Rowbottom, Mike (1993-01-31). Athletics: Grindley trails in the final strides: Mike Rowbottom reports from Glasgow . The Independent. Retrieved 2010-01-20.
7. ^ Rowbottom, Mike (1995-02-07). Christie faces old adversary. The Independent. Retrieved on 2010-01-20.
8. ^ Athletics: Christie plans sprint double. The Independent (1996-01-09). Retrieved on 2010-01-24.
9. ^ Athletics: Sprinters face race-off. The Daily Telegraph (2002-02-20). Retrieved on 2010-01-24.
10. ^ Athletics: Newton and Grant given chance to raise profile. The Independent (2004-01-24). Retrieved on 2010-01-24.
11. ^ Turnbull, Simon (2002-03-11). Athletics: Rising star East sets a summer target. The Independent. Retrieved on 2010-01-24.
12. ^ Rowbottom, Mike (2003-06-23). Athletics: Montgomery has a point to prove against Chambers. The Independent. Retrieved on 2010-01-24.
13. ^ Jessica Ennis to captain Britain at international match in Glasgow. The Guardian/PA (2010-01-20). Retrieved on 2010-01-24.
14. ^ Ennis steals the show in Glasgow. European Athletics (2010-01-31). Retrieved on 2010-02-01.
15. ^ Brown, Matthew (2011-01-29). Ennis sparkles in Glasgow. IAAF. Retrieved on 2011-01-30.
16. ^ "3000 Metres Results". www.uka.org.uk. 2011-01-29. http://www.uka.org.uk/results/20110129_Glasgow/timetable/index/pdf/AT-3000-W-f--1--.RS1.pdf. Retrieved 2011-01-30. 

External links

• Event information from UK Athletics
• Event history in brief from BBC Sport