Weir asks Hampden to roar him to glory

The wheelchair racer, who won four gold medals in the capital two summers ago, was urged by a Glasgow taxi driver last weekend to brace himself for the volume inside Hampden Park when he bids for a first Commonwealth title.

The 35-year-old gears up for his T54 1500 metres race in Glasgow by competing over a mile on The Mall at the Sainsbury’s Anniversary Games tomorrow.

He still marvels at the memories of the wall of noise which greeted him inside the Olympic Stadium at the Paralympics and is looking forward to sampling a similar atmosphere north of the border.

Weir said: “The noise was just incredible. Usually when you race in stadiums you’ll get pockets where it’s a little bit quiet and usually the home straight is the loudest.

“But in the Olympic Stadium it followed you round. If you were a blind athlete you probably wouldn’t have known where the home straight was. It was unreal, the sound just followed you round like a wave.”

The Weirwolf, as he became known at London 2012, got his first taste of Hampden at the Sainsbury’s Glasgow Grand Prix last weekend. He added: “Racing at an iconic stadium like Hampden Park, you’ve seen it on telly with the football, I couldn’t wait to give it a test.

“They talk about the Hampden Roar – I got a cab back to the station and the driver said, ‘Wait until you hear the Hampden Roar’, so I am really looking forward to that.

“It can definitely recreate the intensity of the Olympic Stadium, I don’t see why not. The track’s quite close to the crowd.”