Gold star for Graeme with medals for Championships

February 7, 2024 7:55 am

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Edinburgh artist Graeme Clark has won a competition designing medals for athletes competing in the World Indoor Championships at the Emirates Arena, Glasgow, from March 1-3.

The Championships will feature over 700 athletes as they compete across 26 events with up to 108 medals being awarded.

The first time the event has been held in Scotland, this is reflected in the design of the medal, which incorporates the thistle inspired event brand complemented by a selection of well-known Glasgow landmarks around its outer rim, giving athletes a little piece of Glasgow to remember their triumph, long after they leave the city.

Graeme said: “As a man from Edinburgh, I’ve always enjoyed trips through to Glasgow for various exhibitions, gigs, and shopping. It’s a city full of culture and serves as a great creative inspiration for designers like me.
“It’s also a place full of inspiring talent and iconic architecture.

“I’ve worked with many Glaswegian brands over the years and the city always seems to birth amazing things. The city has a lot of iconic monuments and structures that served as the inspiration for the design.”

Bailie Annette Christie, Chair of Glasgow Life who co-ordinated the design competition said:
“When we issued a callout to the Scottish craft and design community we knew the standard of submissions would be high but we were hugely impressed with the quality of the response.

“While we had a tough decision to make Graeme’s design stood out as the clear winner and we are delighted to be able to create a medal that incorporates so much of Glasgow’s iconic skyline and has a distinctly Scottish feel.”

The medals have been produced by specialist manufacturer Toye, Kenning and Spencer who have produced a range of high-quality championship medals including the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham where the company is based in the city’s Jewellery Quarter.

In addition to the gold, silver and bronze editions a pewter coaches medal has been made to recognise the coaches of the winning relay teams.

Amongst the first to set eyes on the medals were young athletes from the team that represented Glasgow at the European City Challenge last October, as well as Shettleston Harriers and Victoria Park Glasgow Athletics Club.

They were given a sneak peek, by event Ambassador, World and Olympic medallist and European champion, Eilidh Doyle, prior to attending the official opening of the Museum of World Athletics (MOWA) exhibition that is being staged at the St Enoch Centre in Glasgow from now until the end of the Championships.

Eilidh Doyle said: “As an athlete it is always exciting when the medals are revealed as you know the championships are getting close, so it creates a real buzz. And when you see them for real, it really makes you want one and spurs you on that little bit more.”

Those joining Eilidh as a MOWA guest of honour included Edinburgh-born Allan Wells and Musselburgh reared Yvonne Murray-Mooney.

Allan won the 1980 Olympic 100m while Yvonne was successful over 3000m at the 1993 World Indoor Championships.

Also on hand was Bellshill’s Tom McKean, a former 800m champion and the latest Museum of World Athletics heritage exhibition helps celebrates over 170 years of indoor track and field athletics history.

Displays contain clothing, shoes, equipment, trophies, and medals donated by more than 30 world champions and/or record breakers.
The exhibits are supported by giant wall graphics, text, photographs, and videos which take the visitor on a journey from the world’s first ‘indoor’ meeting in 1849 to the present day.

Appropriately, given the exhibition’s location, the displays have a distinctly Scottish feel. As well as the competition items which the guests of honour provided at the opening ceremony, running spikes from Scottish world champions Liz McColgan (Tokyo 1991) and Jake Wightman (Oregon 2022) are also being exhibited.

Life-sized photographs of Scotland’s two Olympic 400m champions Wyndham Halswelle (London 1908) and Eric Liddell (Paris 1924) adorn the windows and walls of the exhibition.

Greeting visitors at the entrance is a large photograph of Laura Muir winning the first half of a 3000m / 1500m double at the European Indoor Championships in Glasgow in 2019.

As usual, stunning video material is incorporated into the displays including highlights of past editions of the World Athletics Indoor Championships and a cinematic edit of the Birmingham 2018 edition.

For the first time in a MOWA exhibition is an experimental touch screen via which visitors can select videos from a small initial library of clips from past championships.

Usual MOWA favourites such as giant pole vault and high jump graphics set at their current world indoor record heights, and a colourful display of national athletics singlets, also feature in the Glasgow exhibit.

The MOWA Indoor Athletics Exhibition Glasgow 24 on the ground floor of the St Enoch Centre, St Enoch Square, Glasgow G1 4BW, is open daily to the public from 11am to 6pm closing on the final day of the World Athletics Indoor Championships Glasgow 24 on Sunday 3 March.

Joining MOWA at St Enoch on the first floor is Commonwealth Games Scotland staging the Team Scotland Exhibition celebrating 10 years on since the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games.