Edinburgh athletes right on track

Universities from across Scotland each dispatched a team of athletes to Kelvin Hall, Glasgow on Wednesday 12 October for the annual Freshers Match. A casual, ‘friendly’ athletics meet, the Freshers Match serves both as a performance indicator in the early days of training as well as a dress rehearsal for the Scottish Indoor Championships, which take place in the same venue in February.

The Edinburgh University Athletics Club contingent was as sizable as ever, as a significant number of debutants mingled with the old guard to swell the ranks. The perilously steep banking of Kelvin Hall’s familiar track proved as challenging and entertaining as ever on a wholly encouraging day for Edinburgh.

The track session began with the men’s and women’s 60m heats and a multitude of Edinburgh athletes on track. Unfortunately, with few qualifying spots in an event where fractions of a second mean everything, only Faye Nicholson of the women and James Wade of the men were able to edge into their respective next rounds. Wade finished a commendable fourth in his semi-final, his time of 7.52s less than one tenth of a second short of qualification, whilst Nicholson pushed into third in her final an 8.37s run.

In the field, the Long Jump was proving laborious for Edinburgh’s men, managing eventually to secure third, fifth, sixth and seventh spots – although Sean Gibson in third managed to narrowly improve his personal best with a jump of 5.60m. In the High Jump Kat Heron came agonisignly close to equalling her PB of 1.45m, narrowly fouling each of three attempts at the height. William Smy was the best of the men, securing second with a jump of 1.80m. With little field-specific training these performances were particularly pleasing.

Back on track, in the men’s 400m, Edinburgh’s Isaac Baldwin emerged from the heats to run a blinding 52.09, earning himself second place in a brilliantly tight race. Women’s captain Nicci Chapman also ran to a strong second in the 1500m, whilst Kyle McLellan turned in two commanding performances to win not only the men’s 1500m but the 3000m too.

After this, men’s captain Tom Bateson stepped up and delivered a new PB in the 800m with a time of 2mins and 3.25s, whilst in the women’s equivalent race Caitlin Mayhew came in only a second behind women’s captain Chapman, the pair finishing second and third. Meanwhile, the athletes were massing on the sidelines in preparation for the highly competitive 200m that would wind down the day’s events.

With a strong women’s field being whittled down harshly to go straight into the final, only Claire Taylor came through the heats for Edinburgh. However, she ran superbly to win the final in 27.29s, holding the stagger on a tough final bend. In the men’s, five Edinburgh athletes raced into the semi-finals, four of whom managed to run sub-25s. Particular among them were Wade, battling through his 60m fatigue, and Charlie Stainforth – the latter making the final and only edged into fourth in the last few yards of a intensely tight race.

Having enjoyed this taste of competition the team will now hunker down for the winter and do some serious fine-tuning, ready to come out fighting in early 2012.