The great Olympic showdown (and Meadowbank's role)
Plus: Fresh hope in rail strike talks and cost of EICC hotel debated
From Meadowbank to the Olympics, Josh Kerr goes for gold
The scene is set for arguably the biggest showdown in world athletics.
Tomorrow night at 7.50pm on the purple track of the Stade de France in Paris, Edinburgh’s Josh Kerr will take on the Norwegian reigning Olympic champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen in the men’s 1500m final.
The fierce rivals - the two fastest men in the world - will go head to head for the gold medal after last night clinching their places in the final.
Their often factitious rivalry only adds to the drama of the occasion, with the pair exchanging jibes since Kerr shocked Ingebrigtsen to beat him in last year’s World Championships in Budapest.
Ingebrigtsen has suggested he could beat Kerr “blindfolded”, while Kerr has talked about the Norwegian’s “flaws”. Tomorrow night we will find out.
The only disappointment is that injury forced Edinburgh Athletic Club’s other world champion Jake Wightman to pull out of the contest late last week with a hamstring injury.
Cool customer: In his trademark shades, and now wearing custom-made gold spikes, Kerr has established himself as one of the great competitors and standout characters of world athletics. The 26-year-old, whose brother Jake plays international rugby for Scotland, grew up alongside fellow world champion Wightman, training at Meadowbank.
Head to head: While Kerr is the reigning world champion and has won his last two races with Ingebrigtsen, the 23-year-old Norwegian is in blistering form. The reigning Olympic champion and Olympic record holder pulled off the 1500m/5000m double at the European Championships in Rome this year, before beating the 1500m European record at the Diamond League in Monaco, in 3:26:73.
Ingebrigtsen on Kerr: Referring to the fact Kerr hasn’t raced competitively over 1500m so far this season. “It is difficult to refer to him as a rival when he is never there. He is known as the Brit who never competes.”
Kerr on his rivals: “I don’t think anyone is good enough to beat me on 6 August.”
YOUR EDINBURGH BRIEFING
STRIKE OFFER: There is a glimmer of hope in the rail dispute which is seeing ScotRail operate on a severely reduced timetable as the Festivals get underway. A renewed pay offer has been made to drivers, reportedly worth 8.5% over three years. The rail drivers are being balloted on strike action. Meanwhile, refuse workers are set to walkout in Edinburgh on 14-22 August, with neither side as yet conceding ground.
CORPSE SHORTAGE: A rise in the number of medical students studying in Scotland has led to a shortage of corpses for them to train on and practical training classes being cancelled. Edinburgh University in particular is facing a “serious problem” meeting demand, according to an official report by Prof Gordon Findlater, HM Inspector for Anatomy in Scotland.
WHALES AND DOLPHINS: It has been a bumper week for wildlife sightings in the Firth of Forth as the warm weather brings more of us flocking to the sea and the coastline. Sightings of porpoise, bottlenose dolphin, minke whale, fin whale, humpback whale and basking shark have been reported in the estuary.
FINANCIAL POTHOLES: Scotland faces a cost of more than £2.5 BILLION to repair local roads around Scotland, according to Freedom of Information figures obtained from most of the country’s local councils by Scottish Labour. This represents an increase of £800 million in just two years, according to figures previously obtained in 2022.
FILM STAR TURNS: Trainspotting and Harry Potter star Kelly Macdonald and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and Band of Brothers actor Damian Lewis will be among the star guests at the 77th Edinburgh International Film Festival, which starts on 15 August. The pair appear as vampire parents in the dark comedy The Radleys, based on the novel by Matt Haig, which premieres at the festival.
WE’RE GOING TO NEED A BIGGER PORT: Forth Ports has successfully trialed a new deep water berth by welcoming the massive Carnival Legend cruise ship to Leith. With around 3,000 passengers and crew on board, measuring 293m in length, and weighing 88,500 tonnes, the vessel made for an unmistakable sight in the Forth.
PEARL’S A ZINGER: The biggest Scottish freshwater pearl discovered in living memory is to be offered for sale live online by auctioneers, Lyon & Turnbull, on Wednesday 21st August. Found in 1967, the Abernethy Pearl, was named after Bill Abernethy, Scotland’s last pearl fisherman. Pearl fishing was banned in Scotland completely in 1998. It is estimated to fetch between £40,000 and £60,000. The Kellie Pearl, set in the Crown of Scotland dating to the 1540s, still holds the record for the largest Scottish river pearl ever found.
CAPITAL POET: Acclaimed poet and author Michael Pedersen has been named the next Edinburgh Makar, the city’s own version of poet laureate, succeeding poet and playwright Hannah Lavery. The rising literary star, who will write new works celebrating the city and its life, described himself as “elated and electrified” by the news.
GORGIE FARM: The city’s beloved urban farm looks set to reopen as a free visitor attraction, but without any animals for at least five years. Gorgie Farm has been shut to the public for the past 18 months after running into financial problems. Plans for its reopening are to be debated by councillors this week.
CAR CANAL: A convertible car, submerged in the waters of the Union Canal near Hailesland Place, is being recovered as police inquiries are made. No-one was in the vehicle.
THE BUSINESS
Cost of new EICC hotel set to be discussed in private by council
City councillors are to discuss in private a new report on the 350-bed Edinburgh International Conference Centre Hotel at Haymarket on Wednesday.
A report from Chief Executive Paul Lawrence is to be discussed behind closed doors at a special meeting of the Finance and Resources Committee. Earlier this summer the plans appeared to suffer a setback when Sir Robert McAlpine, the building firm tasked with delivering the four-star hotel, withdrew from the contract.
In June, Haymarket developer QMile said a ‘specialist hotel contractor’ would take over, and it was claimed that while it was likely the cost of the project would rise the scheme would be completed as planned within two years. The overall development also includes offices and retail and leisure space.
The hotel, one of the city’s biggest, would be operated by EICC under a franchise deal with Hyatt Hotels to meet demand for rooms among international delegates attending events at the conference centre. EICC is run by the council as an arms-length body.
BIG WIN: Newbridge-based Commsworld has secured a new contract worth more than £35m over five years – one of the largest in its history - to provide network services to Glasgow City Council, transforming the council’s infrastructure from ageing legacy networks to cutting-edge technologies and 5G network capabilities.
UNHACKABLE INTERNET: Heriot-Watt University is to lead a groundbreaking quantum technology initiative - funded by the UK Government and designed to deliver a hacking-proof internet – in a bid to combat the £27 billion a year cost of cybercrime to businesses. Professor Gerald Buller, who will lead the IQN Hub at Heriot-Watt, explains: “Quantum encryption creates keys that are essentially unbreakable. It’s like having a lock that changes every time someone tries to pick it.”
AWARDS OPEN: Scotland Women’s Business Conference & Awards, is to take place on October 29th at the Royal College of Physicians in Queen Street. Nominations for the awards are currently open, and the deadline to submit entries is 31 August. For more information, visit https://womensbusiness.club/s/scotconference
THAT’S ENTERTAINMENT
Forgive us, but we hope you’ll understand why we didn’t feel able to give you a comprehensive overview of the entertainment on offer in the city over the next week or so. Instead of trying to replicate the ‘best of the Fest’ lists you can find all over the internet, we thought it would be useful to highlight a select few gems that you might otherwise overlook. We hope you like them.
HOUSE OF SMALLS: Having started life as an online dollhouse project during lockdown, The House of Smalls is coming to Stockbridge with its nineteenth show, Moral Fibre, open now and until 25 August. Their exhibitions provide a safe and intimate space for predominantly women artists to exhibit personal and thought-provoking work. Catch them at 103 Henderson Row.
OUTWITH WORDS: The brilliant Tinderbox Orchestra are teaming up with the city’s celebrated Loud Poets for a series of special shows at the Central Library on 8-10, 15-17 and 22-24 August, at 8pm. Bringing together rappers and singers with brass, strings, woodwind and a thundering backline, the 20-piece Tinderbox transform preconceptions of what an orchestra can be. They are teaming up with some of Scotland’s most exciting spoken word artists for this year’s shows. Be quick, last year’s shows sold out.
HOPE WITH FEATHERS: Opened in 2005 by the late Magnus Magnusson and named after the Scottish ornithologist Donald Watson, the gallery at The Scottish Ornithologists’ Club(SOC) headquarters at Aberlady Bay specialises in displaying the country’s best wildlife-inspired art. This year the SOC has teamed up with Visual Arts Scotland to stage an open exhibition of art inspired by birds, entitled “Hope” is the Thing with Feathers. Free entry, open Wed-Sun, until 15 September.
QUICK BITES
MUSIC HISTORY: A John Lennon artefact on display at Hard Rock Café in George Street – a questionnaire filled out by the legendary musician - is part of the new worldwide Beatles memorabilia Treasure Hunt, launched in honour of the release of John Lennon’s 1973 album Mind Games – The Ultimate Collection. The Treasure Hunt is a collaboration between the John Lennon Estate and Hard Rock Café.
FEAST IN THE WALK: King of Feasts have announced they will soon be serving food, including their loaded sandwiches, at the Mother Superior Bar in Leith Walk within the next month. The caterers already serve food within the Polwarth Tavern from Wednesday to Sunday, 2pm to 10pm.