One stride at a time for Podiatry student with passion for athletics
A GCU Podiatry student is ready to take the next step on his athletics journey by helping GCU claim a medal at the British University Championships (BUCS).
Fourth year Jamie Stevenson will join other members of the GCU Athletics Club in Sheffield next February where they will be up against the best British student sport has to offer.
BUCS is the latest chapter in what has been a long journey for Jamie, who has been involved in the sport from a young age.
He said: “I was always quite a quick runner when I was younger – I won a lot at sports days in primary school! My mum and my uncle used to run when they were younger, so I’ve always been around the sport. It was a natural transition for me to join an athletics club, helped by the fact that I also really liked running.
“I joined Kirkintilloch Olympians when I was eight years old and started to compete the following year. I then moved to Victoria Park City of Glasgow when I was 13 and I’m still with the club to this day.”
Athletics also led Jamie down his chosen career path, with his passion for running continuing to develop at University.
“It definitely helped me get into GCU,” explained Jamie. “Some people I trained with at the club were a couple of years ahead of me on the course, so I was aware of it. There’s also definitely a link to it with the MSK (Musculoskeletal) side of running. If something is hurting then I’ll tend to have an idea around what might have caused that – my knowledge has only increased and continued to benefit me.
“When I started at GCU, I knew I needed to be in the Athletics Club to go and compete at the likes of BUCS. The team do social runs in the local area throughout the week and train once a week at Crownpoint as well, so there has been a lot of preparation ahead of it next year.”
With BUCS just a few months away, Jamie and the rest of the club are ready to perform - bolstered by the addition of some new members.
He said: “The club hadn’t been as active in recent years and it was basically individuals who were just looking to compete, but this year it’s different.
“There was a real effort at Freshers’ to get new people in, so there’s been good numbers at social runs and training. That can only be of benefit because it means students can race while also allowing us to have a bigger team that can compete at a higher level.
“We know it will be difficult at BUCS because there’s definitely a massive step-up between Scottish Universities and British Universities. There are a lot of athletes down there who have went on to the World Championships and Olympics.”
Despite the challenge of facing a higher level of competition, Jamie is hoping his past experience can help him have a successful start to 2025.
He said: “The main focus for us as a team is the Scottish University Championships in January and BUCS in February. I haven’t done BUCS outdoor before because it always falls in exams, but I’ve done the Scottish University Championships indoor and outdoor every year and won some medals.
“I’m hoping to take some good form into BUCS. I’ll be competing in the 60m and possibly the 200m. We’re also hoping to get a relay team together for the 4x200m race. There are four of us that are quite strong, so we should hopefully make the final at BUCS and then push for a medal. We’ll just have to wait and see.
“At an individual level, the standard is really high so I’ll just be focusing on trying to run a personal best and get some good races in. I’m looking forward to testing myself!”
You can find out more about the GCU Athletics Club on the GCU Students’ Association Website
By Ross Clark
Got an SHLS or GSBS story? Email me at Ross.Clark@gcu.ac.uk or message me on Twitter