OCTOBER | THE COMMENTATOR
Martin Fullard
fails at teaching
T
he other week my
daughter decided it
would be funny to
hide the remote control. As
I sat there on the sofa eating
cheese I ended up becoming
quite invested in the European
Championships, which were
taking place at Glasgow’s
Scottish Event Campus (SEC).
Specifically, I was tuned into the
gymnastics at The SSE Hydro.
Atop countless items straight
from the KGB cellars, young
gymnasts in glittery leotards
danced, pranced and bent their
bodies into the most improbable
of shapes.
As I wheezed forward to the
coffee table for another slice
of Wensleydale, my daughter
expressed an interest in what
was taking place. Captivated by
the gymnasts she asked what
was going on. While I don’t know
my arabesques from my front
hip pullovers, I did wonder what
level of work The SSE Hydro
had put into making the event
possible.
In a whirlwind of curiosity, I
got in touch with the SEC’s head
of event management, Sandra
Lynch.
“It took more than 80
operations staff from both
the European Championships
and SEC to deliver the event,
excluding volunteers, so it was
pretty busy.
“Accreditation for the
championships was strict and
consistent across the board – so
it wasn’t venue specific. This
meant that all staff had to go
through strict accreditation
processes well in advance of the
50
Keeping boiled gymnasts off the menu
event.”
If doing up my house has
taught me anything it’s that
the obvious things like kitchen
units are easy to install, but
re-wiring and central heating
installation not so much. I’m
sure it wasn’t too hard to roll out
the matt for the gymnasts or
put the pommel horse out, but
there seemed to be a NASA-
level of infrastructure required
to prepare The SSE Hydro for
lighting, sound and cameras.
“Due to the Hydro being a
very busy venue,” said Lynch,
“there was a tight turnaround
in getting the venue ready with
all the apparatus set up and over
400 contractors and staff had
to be inducted over two days in
order to get the rigging up then
the apparatus before training
began.
“The event was broadcast live
on the finals days so constant
changes to lighting and
increased cleaning schedules to
ensure everything was camera-
ready.”
As if running the event
by itself wasn’t enough, over
800 people came to the venue
on the morning of the men’s
team final day for the Scottish
Gymnastics Club Showcase
which saw 11 clubs from all over
Scotland come to showcase their
gymnastic skills on the same
platform that their heroes were
competing on just later that day.
All 800 people were on
“Unless you spent your summer in Siberia, you
may have noted that it was jolly warm”
and offsite by the time the
competition started, that’s
three hours of tight event
management indeed.
Of course, unless you spent
your summer in Siberia, you
may have noted that it was jolly
warm. Certainly, a heatwave
is not something you come
across often in Glasgow, and it
certainly caused the organisers a
challenge.
“One key challenge was
the heatwave,” said Lynch.
“An athlete tunnel was
constructed from the training
hall into The SSE Hydro. Due
to typical Scottish weather,
the teams planned for it to