30 August 2012
Eilish to share Olympic experience as sporting students prepare for success
Photo opportunity: 6.10pm on Friday, 31st August at Institute for Sport and Exercise, University of Dundee. Eilish McColgan will be sharing her Olympic experience with her fellow University athletes.
Inspired by Team GB's stunning success at London 2012, around 100 students from the University of Dundee will demonstrate their commitment to sporting excellence when they return from holiday a week early to take part in a pres-season training camp.
And Eilish McColgan, the University's own Olympian, will share her experiences of the Games when she takes part in a Q&A session with athletes from the 11 teams who have signed up for Dundee University Sport's "Warm Up Weekend", which intends to give them a head start when the university sporting season kicks off next month.
The Warm Up Weekend runs from Friday, 31st August to Sunday, 2nd September. It will involve sport-specific training sessions, along with conditioning and team building sessions, which are designed to ensure that the student athletes are best prepared for the new sporting season.
Some of the country's top coaches will be present to put them through their paces and the additional team-building sessions will ensure that the students are ready to maximise their individual and collective strengths on the sports field. This is the second year that Dundee University Sport has organised a pre-season training camp.
Paul McPate, Assistant Director of the University's Institute of Sport and Exercise, said "Our inaugural pre-season training camp for sports teams proved to be a great success, and it certainly gave our student athletes an advantage when the competitive season began.
"Sports teams and individual athletes from Dundee enjoyed great success last year, and we are hoping to build on their excellent results in Scottish and British Universities competition in 2012/13.
"This weekend will be physically and mentally challenging. At the same time, the athletes will have the opportunity to mix and work with members of other teams, building a greater feeling of community amongst the many sports teams at the University.
"We hope the legacy of the Olympics is that more people take up sport. We have teams and activities to suit any taste and our clubs will be delighted to welcome new members this year. We hope that university teams will continue this success in the coming season, and they can take inspiration from sports scholar Eilish McColgan, who flew the flag for Dundee, and for Team GB, where she competed in the 3000m Steeplechase.
"I'm sure the other athletes will get a huge boost from hearing Eilish share her experiences of participating in the world's biggest sporting event."
The badminton, women's basketball, football, women's hockey, karate, netball, rowing, women's rugby, swimming, trampoline and ultimate frisbee teams have all signed up for Warm Up Weekend.
Last year Dundee University teams achieved some outstanding sporting successes. Amongst these successes were the Men's and Women's Rugby teams being crowned Scottish Universities Champions; men's basketball, badminton women's hockey and women's tennis all winning their respective British Universities and Colleges (BUCS) Conference Cup Finals and women's squash winning the final of the BUCS Trophy.
Dundee University Sport is the partnership between ISE and Dundee University Sports Union. They have joined forces to maximise the strengths of each partner in enhancing the provision of sport for students and staff.
The Sports Union represents some 51 member and associate clubs, ranging from archery to volleyball. Several University teams have enjoyed success at a national level in recent years, and many sportsmen and women from the University have gone on to represent their country and achieve individual glory in their chosen field.
For media enquiries contact:
Grant Hill
Press Officer
University of Dundee
Nethergate, Dundee, DD1 4HN
TEL: 01382 384768
E-MAIL: g.hill@dundee.ac.uk
MOBILE: 07854 953277 |
