Hampden Progress Unveiled Ahead Of Glasgow 2014
One of the main venues of the Commonwealth Games has been unveiled today after months of renovations to turn it from a football stadium into an athletics arena.
Hampden Park, usually the home of Scotland's national team and domestic cup finals, closed its doors last year as work started to install a running track.
Diggers were brought in to remove the stadium's turf - some of which was presented to members of the Tartan Army - and steel stilts have been put in place to raise the surface by almost two metres to create the width and length required for an International Association of Athletics Federations-approved track.
During the Games the stadium will seat 44,000, returning to its 52,000 capacity at the end of the event.
Olympic champion Jessica Ennis-Hill and Scottish athlete Eilidh Child will be among the first to see the renovated arena later today as they take a tour of Hampden and the Athletes' Village in the east end of Glasgow.
Ennis-Hill announced earlier this year that she is pregnant and will not be competing at the Games but remains a high profile ambassador for Glasgow 2014.
Child will be aiming to win medals on the track at Hampden in the 400m hurdles and 400m relay event.
The unveiling of the new-look Hampden is the latest milestone in the countdown to the Games.
An army of 15,000 volunteers started training for the event last week and will be primed over the coming months for a variety of roles across divisions including press, anti-doping and transport.
An electronic clock counting down every second until the opening ceremony on July 23 was also launched at Glasgow Central Station this week by swimmer Michael Jamieson.
The purpose-built village which will accommodate around 6,500 athletes during the Games has been described by organisers as ``revolutionary'' and is said to be the Scotland's first large-scale carbon neutral housing development.
You can see a video of the stadium's transformation here http://www.glasgow2014.com/video/hampden-story
