Sweet Succe-SSS for St Andrews Athletics

“The stars of track and field are beautiful people”. Never have the lyrics of Belle & Sebastian been stolen more artfully than they were just then by me to describe […]


“The stars of track and field are beautiful people”. Never have the lyrics of Belle & Sebastian been stolen more artfully than they were just then by me to describe the competitors in the Scottish Universities Athletics Championships at Grangemouth last Saturday.

A small but mighty team from St Andrews turned out with such force as we could muster and put on a fine, or at least fairly respectable, show of athletic prowess.

A number of Athletics-world problems became apparent throughout the day. “Don’t you hate it when you go for a nap on the high-jump mat and get woken up by someone who wants to compete on it” and “the Tannoy is giving me tinnitus” were among the more amusing comments I overheard.

St Andrews’ athletes performed pretty well with a total of 8 medals accrued over the day’s events.

Neil Graham stormed to victory in the men’s steeplechase and Fiona Trew dominated the field to take gold in the women’s 400m.

Jenniffer Dunn placed second in the 100m and fourth in the 200m sprint events as well as dabbling in discus and javelin.

Sarah Watters was the strongest all-rounder winning bronze medals in the women’s long jump, triple jump and 100m hurdles.

Adam Boggon surprised everyone including himself by managing to avoid complete submersion in the steeplechase water jump. He was even more surprised to end the day with a bronze medal from the high jump and a silver in the 3000m steeplechase.

David Bowers took 4th in the 1500m, Mark Hardy placed 5th in the 200m and Stuart Milne made it into the 800m final.

But the day belonged to Eilish McColgan of Dundee who won gold in the women’s 1500m and 3000m events, beating the championship record for the 1500 meters along the way. She said she was happy with her performance and is hoping to compete in the Olympic steeplechase this summer.

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The next big event for Saints athletics is BUCS. This year, the British Universities championships are being held in the London Olympic Stadium. The 40,000 tickets available for the Saturday events are selling fast with members of the public who missed out on tickets to the Olympic games buying up tickets in order to experience the new stadium. The field will be strong with many UK Olympians of University age competing in the track and field events.

All this leaves your reporter, himself a fairly shoddy high-jumper and middle-distance runner, pretty well quaking in his spikes.

A good day out was had by all, though Tom Whelan admitted to being “disappointed there wasn’t a face-plant in the steeple chase”.

At the end of the day it was a game of two halves but we all took it one step at a time, ran our own races and focused on the positives. Admittedly, the other teams got a few lucky goals and we were hampered by the timekeeper who was obviously biased but we will all go back to the drawing board with our heads held high.

Athletics President, Jenn Dunn concluded the day by saying “We all had individual successes, and we all had fun.”

What more can you ask for?

 

Photos © Jennifer Dunn