The semester hadn’t even started and already sports teams had been out competing.  One of these was the Athletics club.  Half made the short journey to Glasgow for the Indoor Championships, with the other half making the longer (and snowier) trip to Cardiff for the British Cross Country Championships.

 

Although Stirling currently hold the Scottish Outdoor title, because of the competition time for the indoors being before semester starts, not much focus is placed on this, so only a team of 10 were competing.  From this, the team came away with 4 medals (Fraser Weir – High Jump silver; Andy Carroll – 60m bronze; Janelle McGurk – High Jump bronze; Michelle Durbidge – Shotputt bronze).  Many PB’s were also made by the athletes in attendance, and it was also a welcome return to competition for Vicky Stephen, having been out of action since the same competition last year.  Up next for the team is the trip down to Sheffield for the British Indoors, competing against the likes of Loughborough and Brunel.

 

The trip down to Cardiff went off without any troubles, although it appeared on arrival that some problems could emerge.  The course conditions on the Friday were not very good, with the ground frozen.  This would change on the race day (Saturday) when the snow started to come down an hour before the racing had started!  Luckily the races all still went ahead – unlike Aberdeen 2009 where the races were cancelled because of the snow!  Once the field of over 300 had congregated for the start of the race it was coming down heavily and a blanket of snow was covering the course, which would be looped 4 times. The stand out performance came from 2^nd year student Scott Green, who was the 3rd Scottish University athlete to cross the line in 32.28 (50^th). Just under a minute back was Russell White 33.23 (78^th). The other team scorers were Ross Christie 36.19 (180^th) and Joe Perry 38.56 (242^nd) with Kevin Shenck 40.11 (264^th) and David Lindsay 40.44 (271^st). Scott, Russell, Ross and Joe's points tally came to 550 in 28th positions, one place down from last year.

 

The womens long race was next to tackle the snowy course, 1 short lap and 2 full laps. Fiona Thompson came home in 27.53 (93^rd), Jess Pye 31.28 (227^th) and Aillie McGowan 32.04 (253^rd).  Alex Campbell unfortunately had to withdraw during the race. Despite Fiona and Jess racing through injuries and Ailie competing in her first ever race they still managed 553 points coming home as 58th team.

The final race of the day saw Andy Hood tackle the 3 full laps in the B race.  This race is for all the extra athletes who can’t compete in the A race, which is limited to 6 athletes per university.  He finished a strong 71st in 26.12