22 November 2005
Sports star wins top award
A young student at the University of Dundee has had her sporting prowess recognised with one of the top awards in Scottish athletics.
Third year medical student Morag MacLarty (19) has been named Hi-Tec Athlete of the Year by scottishathletics, the sport's governing body. The talented middle-distance runner picked up the prestigious award following a successful year in which she won the European under 20s title and the Commonwealth youth championships for 1500m.
A member of the University's Excel Sports Scholarship team, Morag, who is from Auchterarder, is the youngest athlete to win the award in its seven year history.
Her potential has also been recognised by the Scottish Institute of Sport, which has selected Morag for its squad of athletes with the ability to win medals at the highest level.
Morag's success follows the achievement of fellow university athlete Ross Clark (18), who was recently named sports person of the year by SportDundee, an initiative run by Dundee City Council.
The first year applied computing student has also been selected to swim for Scotland in next year's Commonwealth Games in Australia.
Commenting on her scottishathletics award Morag said, "It's really great to have this kind of recognition. It was a bit of a surprise because it includes all the senior athletes, people who have been competing in the world championships so I wasn't expecting to win this.
"I have had a really good season and everything has just come together. The sport itself is very rewarding and everyone is really friendly but this is an extra boost."
And she praised the Excel Sports Scholarship Programme which provides support to talented athletes studying at the university./p>
"It gives me lots of support behind the scenes and helps with things like negotiating time off to train," said Morag. "I'm quite lucky in that I have even more support now that I've been selected by the Scottish Institute of Sport and I'm sponsored by Nike so that all helps."
Notes to Editor:
The University of Dundee's Excel Sports Scholarship programme has been running for seven years to help athletes combine their sporting and academic commitments. A total of nine students, including Morag and Ross, were awarded scholarships this year.
For more information on Scottish Athletics visit their website at: scottishathletics
The Scottish Institute of Sport was established in October 1998 to support the development of high performance sport in Scotland. A member of the sportscotland group of companies, the Institute is funded by the sportscotland Lottery Fund. More information is available from the website at: www.sisport.com
For more information contact:
Hilary McNally,
Press Office
Tel: 01382 344021,
out of hours: 07968298585,
Email: h.mcnally@dundee.ac.uk | 
