COLD SHOULDER FOR LOSER’S TICKET TO FINAL HOT SEAT
IT’S FAIR to say the ‘hot seat’ gimmick at the European Athletics Indoor Championships has not gone down well with most athletes. Fastest losers — those who have missed out on automatic qualification but could still reach finals depending on how quickly others run — sit in a seat with a garish ‘ticket for the final’ until someone else bumps them out. Olympic medallist Kelly Sotherton branded it ‘humiliating’ and Dina Asher-Smith labelled the organisers ‘out of touch’. Equally baffling was the staging of medal ceremonies in a concourse at Glasgow’s Emirates Arena, rather than trackside, for the first two days. The podium was located between a vending machine and a hotdog bar.