Although the IAAF World Championships in London will be the focus for everyone this weekend, in just eight months’ time Birmingham will be staging its own world championships, when the IAAF World Indoor Championships returns to the city from 1 to 4 March.
It has been a busy few months for the organising team, which is mainly made up of representatives from Birmingham City Council and British Athletics, as in recent weeks the Championships timetable was unveiled, the official website was launched and tickets went on sale to priority groups - including athletics fans, clubs and members of the British Athletics Supporters Club, who between them snapped up 8,000 tickets in the first few hours.
As part of the timetable announcement it was confirmed that there will be six sessions for the Championships, with the IAAF Council approving an opening session on Thursday 1 March. It was also revealed that the women’s 3000m final, an event which saw Laura Muir take gold in the European Indoor Championships earlier this year, will now be part of the opening night, alongside both the men’s and the women’s high jump finals.
Tickets for the event, which will be held at Arena Birmingham*, start at just £5 for concessions and the event is fantastic value for families, as Championships Director Joan Durose explains: “We want to ensure that this event, which will see some of the world’s best athletes compete for world titles, is accessible for local people and athletics fans across the country, so we’ve made sure that a family of four, with two adults and two children, can attend some sessions of the Championships for just £50.”
This week the official mascot for the Championships, Ruby the Red Panda, was launched. Ruby made her first ever appearance at the Birmingham Wildlife Conservation Park, which is just a few miles from Arena Birmingham.
The park was chosen as the ideal setting for Ruby’s unveiling, as they participate in a red panda breeding programme, to protect this endangered species, and have done since 2005, when one of the new arrivals, Babu, famously went missing. He was found four days later and returned to his enclosure. Babu was later named ‘Brummie of The Year’.
By having a red panda as the mascot, the organising team for the IAAF World Indoor Championships, hopes to raise awareness of the work that the Birmingham Wildlife Conservation Park does to help protect this endangered species. The mascot is named Ruby because of her sparkling personality and as a nod to the city’s famous Jewellery Quarter.
