Edinburgh University Athletics Club had a promising start to their indoor season last Wednesday, with the University coming second to Glasgow University Athletics Club at the Scottish Universities and Colleges Athletics Freshers Match at the Emirates Arena in Glasgow.
The Freshers Match was the club’s first competition of the indoor season and therefore the first opportunity for freshers and new members to put their training to good use and compete for the club.
Every year Scottish Athletics holds this friendly competition and it usually attracts universities from all over Scotland. This year the club were up against not only their rivals, Glasgow University but also Glasgow Caledonian, RGU, Stirling, Heriot-Watt, Strathclyde, Dundee, St Andrews and Edinburgh Napier.
This year’s competition saw us come second overall and get some amazing individual results. One of our new members Conrad Rousseau came 1st in the Men’s 60m hurdles, with an impressive time of 9.88, and also came a respectable 3rd place in the Men’s long jump.
Kyle Laing came 4th in the Men’s 60m final with a time of 7.47 and William King also came 4th in the 1500m.
Some of the girls in the club also got good results with Caroline Kyle coming 4th in the Women’s 400m final with a time of 64.98.
Unfortunately the club didn’t manage to win the Appleton trophy, which was up for grabs for the first time this year, to add bite to the competition with Glasgow University. The club came second with 118 points to 122. However this has not dampened spirits and Edinburgh now seem even more determined to win the trophy back next year. In the meantime the club will carry on with their training, focussing primarily on technique, getting ready for the next indoor competition, The Scottish University Indoor Championship, in February 2015.
The club have had a great start to the indoor season, with the appointment of some new coaches. Up until recently, the Edinburgh team had struggled to find professional coaches but their luck was in this year when Bill Walker offered to coach their sprint sessions. Bill Walker is one of Scotland’s top sprint coaches and has been coaching young athletes for 52 years at Meadowbank Stadium, Edinburgh. More and more coaches have been getting in touch wanting to help the team and now Edinburgh also