Scotland Office celebrates sporting success
With just six weeks to go before Rio, athletes and those who work behind the scenes to create sporting success gathered in Glasgow last night.
Scotland Office minister Andrew Dunlop celebrating Scottish sporting success at the Emirates Arena, Glasgow, overlooking the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome.
Hosted by Scotland Office Minister Andrew Dunlop in partnership with UK Sport and sportscotland, the evening saw triathlete Stefan Hoggan, equestrian Wils Oakden and founder of Scottish Women in Sport Maureen McGonigle join representatives right across the landscape of Scottish and UK sport to champion the future of the field.
With the Commonwealth Games, the World Gymnastics Championships, the IPC Swimming World Championships and two historic Davis Cup ties, Glasgow’s sporting prowess has gone strength to strength, in what has been hailed as a ‘golden sporting era’. It was recently recognised as the fifth best sporting city in the world, ahead of Paris, Sydney and Los Angeles.
Earlier in the day the Minister visited Scotstoun Sporting Campus in west Glasgow, one of the largest training centres of its kind. There, he met members of the Badminton squad in training and toured the facility, which hosted both the squash and table tennis competitions in the 2014 Commonwealth Games.
Speaking at the event, Scotland Office Minister Andrew Dunlop said:
With Rio 2016 just around the corner, I am thrilled to be supporting all UK athletes, and in particular those Scottish athletes who are heading off to Brazil in just a few short weeks.
The work that sportscotland do together with UK Sport in bringing talent right up from the grassroots through to the world stage is tremendous. It simply wouldn’t be possible without the close alignment and cooperation between these two bodies which continues to strengthen and grow.
Through UK Sport, the UK Government has funded British athletes from local to Olympic and Paralympic level, and has spent £275 million supporting summer Olympic athletes, of which 122 are Scottish.