1964 Team GB sprinter Sir Menzies Campbell has met 2012 Team GB hopeful Tremayne Gilling as Universities Week gets into full stride. The ‘team mates’ 50 years apart share an almost identical 100m sprint time, with Sir Menzies’ 1967 speed of 10.2 seconds just 0.05 of a second faster than Tremayne’s current personal best of 10.25 seconds.
Sir Menzies, Chancellor of St Andrew’s University and University of Glasgow graduate, held the British record for the 100m sprint from 1967 to 1974. Today Tremayne, Middlesex University product design student, got top tips from Sir Menzies ahead of competing this weekend at the BUCS Visa Outdoor Athletics Championships, a London 2012 test event as part of the London Prepares Series.
As a student, Sir Menzies also took part in inter-university sports competitions, the equivalent of the forthcoming BUCS Visa Outdoor Athletics Championships.
He commented:
“I was often more on the track rather than the library when I went to Glasgow University. When I was 20, I was selected for what was then the British University Sport Federation team to compete in the World Student Games in Sofia in Bulgaria. The relationship between sport and our education can be symbiotic to the benefit of both because my experience certainly was that a lot of the pain of studying was taken away by the knowledge that one would have a quite different kind of activity in the form of training or indeed competing. And a lot of the lessons you learn in sport about personal discipline and commitment have increasing relevance to academic life.†Sir Menzies full interview is available to view http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxK6zn8rc9I&feature=plcp
The BUCS Visa Outdoor Athletics Championships takes place in the Olympic Stadium from 04 – 07 May, with up to 1,200 student athletes from all over the UK competing for glory across 15 disciplines in four days.
1. To find out more about Universities Week visit www.universitiesweek.org.uk or join in with debate on Twitter #UniWeek and #BUCSChamps
2. Sporting stars talking about importance of university careers available for media use from www.youtube.com/universitiesweek2012
3. For media enquires please contact: Sarah Reardon or Susie Dullard on 020 3023 9934 /9035 or email universitiesweek@fourcommunications.com
4. About Universities Week 2012: a partnership by Universities UK, the representative organisation for the UK’s universities, and BUCS (British Universities & Colleges Sport), the national governing body for higher education sport in the UK. It is supported by universities across the UK and a wide range of organisations including Podium, the National Union of Students, Research Councils UK, the Universities Marketing Forum, the Higher Education Funding Council for England and many more.
