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Students score sports successes
Two University students have recorded impressive results in recent international sporting events.
Scott Fraser, a Performance Psychology masters student, won a silver medal in the sprint event in the World Universities orienteering championships in Borlange, Sweden.
Closer to home, Linus Vaisanen - an 18-year-old from Helsinki, Finland, who is about to begin an economics and finance degree at the University - clinched the prestigious Scottish Boys Stroke Play golf championship.
Upwards direction
Scott’s silver medal adds to the Edinburgh University Orienteering Club’s considerable achievements in 2010.
Orienteering is a popular outdoor sport which tests speed and navigation, with the World Championships involving more than 50 countries.
The club won 5 gold medals at the 2010 British University & Colleges Sport (BUCS) championships.
It has been shortlisted for the 2010 BUCS club of the year award, given to the best University team in any sport in the United Kingdom (UK), and won the 2010 Scottish Universities Sports Award club of the year award.
The University hopes that the opening of its Orienteering Centre of Excellence earlier this year will lead to even more success for its athletes. The centre is the first of its kind in the UK.
Teed up
Elsewhere at the Craigielaw golf course in southeast Scotland, Linus held his nerve on the final green to sink a 10-foot putt, winning the Scottish Boys trophy by one shot.
The victory came on Linus’s first-ever trip to Scotland. He will return later in 2010 to begin his degree.
Linus will take up a place on the University’s high performance sports programme, which is designed for talented sports performers at junior international standard or better and utilises the institution’s top-class training facilities and support services.
The people here in Scotland have been fantastic… I now feel very home in Scotland and look forward to studying here.
Linus Vaisanen
Student
A sporting university
The University’s sports facilities and programmes are among the finest in the UK, with Edinburgh ranked fourth out of 140 institutions in the Independent’s Complete University Guide 2008-09.
Edinburgh provides bursaries, training programmes and a range of support services to help gifted students realise their sporting potential.
The University’s sports centre is currently undergoing a £4.8 million extension, which will improve Edinburgh’s state-of-the-art sports conditioning and physical activity resources.
The extension at the Pleasance gym will include a variety of weight training and body conditioning facilities, topped with a studio space for dance and exercise classes.
This article was published on May 6, 2011