The fourth staging of the Powerade Great City Games took place in Manchester yesterday with an estimated 200,000 people packing the streets for an athletics event that very much brings the sport to the people.
A specially constructed 250 metre running track, together with a pole vault area, are constructed in the city centre and the crowd have an opportunity to witness top athletes in competitive action where buses normally run.  Paul Hession and Derval O’Rourke were both among the competitors on the four lane track, alongside a host of big name stars and defending Olympic champions.
Powerade and Asics are the two principal commercial supporters of the games which are organised by Nova International and were televised live on the BBC.  There was controversy after Jessica Ennis had run a personal best in the 100 metre hurdle race when it emerged that only nine, as opposed to the required ten hurdles had been laid out on the track.
An important part of the event is a talent identification process which starts at the beginning of the week with 3,000 local schoolchildren racing in heats at tracks around the city and then gradually being whittled down to eight.  These then got to run in two races as part of the event.
The whole event takes place off the back of the Great Manchester Run which yesterday secured live TV coverage on BBC until 2018.  It is thought that the Great Ireland Run which took place in April comes too early in the track season to attract enough stars to make this a viable event to bring to Dublin.