St Mary’s Marks Olympic Anniversary with Summer Mile Event

St Mary’s University College, Twickenham recently hosted a community running event at its Strawberry Hill campus to mark the anniversary of the London 2012 Olympic Games. Organised by St Mary’s community sports programme SIMMSport and team GB athletes, the event was a celebration to mark the end of the SIMMSAthletics year, as well as the anniversary of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. On the day young athletes up to the age of eleven gathered on the athletics track to take part in a series of one mile runs. The first race of the day was for the younger athletes aged six to eight who covered the distance. St Mary’s Endurance Performance and Coaching Centre (EPACC) Coach Craig Winrow presented athletes with their awards at the end of the run. Craig, who coaches team GB athletes Andrew Osagie, James Brewer and Ross Murray, also took time to chat to the athletes about their run. The second race of the day was for the older children aged nine to eleven, who came together from different training groups to compete against each other. Current EPACC athlete and team GB runner James Brewer presented awards to the top four finishers, after a dead heat for first place meant that there was a tie for the Gold medal. St Mary’s Sports Development Officer Matt Shurlock said, “It was a fantastic day, and was great to see the young athletes competing against each other, sussing out their pace based on the speed and effort of the other runners. “The Sports Mile was one of the few events that SIMMSAthletics athletes have taken part in this year, after hosting an event earlier in the season with Spethorne Athletics Club in an indoor competition. We were also privileged to have Olympians Ross Murray and Andrew Osagie visit our training camp last October, where they answered questions about their time at the London 2012 Games, and how they got started in athletics.” The St Mary’s Summer Mile will be back in 2014 for SIMMSport athletes to once again race over the famous and historic distance, and beat their previous times.