It has been a while since my last blog and in that time a lot has happened. The past three weeks have been consumed with me gaining selection for the IAAF World Junior Track & Field Championships in Canada. A week before the championships I met up with the rest of the 45 strong team in London where we all boarded the flight to Halifax. After we arrived in Halifax there was a four hour drive to the University of Prince Edward Island, which was to be our training camp for the next week. The journey there was rather boring apart from when we crossed the bridge to Prince Edward Island which happens to be one of the longest bridges in the world.

It wasn’t until the team meeting that night that I really got to know the rest of team. This was my first Great Britain & Northern Island vest and as a result didn’t know many of the people on the team. This wasn’t helped by the fact that there were only two other Scottish people on the team. But after a few days I soon got to know everyone.

One of the most exiting points of my time in the training camp was when I was asked to do an interview for a Scottish national newspaper. When I wasn’t doing that or training I was usually in the swimming pool with the team. One of the highlight of the swimming pool was the diving board. It was 3m high and didn’t look that high at all but we didn’t realize that once up there our eye level would be about another 2m higher. Jumping off that board was one of the scariest things I have ever done.

After spending the week training we travelled down to Moncton, New Brunswick. This was where the over 2,000 athletes from over 150 nations would compete for the next week. The opening ceremony took place on the Monday night and was attended by the Canadian Prime Minister. However, I like the majority of the team did not attend. Rather we spent the time back at the athletes village relaxing for our upcoming races.

The athlete’s village was amazing. There was a large food canteen open from 5am to 11pm. Also there was a games room with all the latest games consoles along with table football and table tennis. During this time I met a lot of the other teams. Particularly the South Africans. Other than the Caribbean nations, South Africa was the only other English speaking country in our village. There were two athletes’ villages.

My race was on the Friday morning. And well, let’s just say it didn’t go as well as it should have. I should have made the final comfortably but just didn’t run the right race on the day. I finished 8th in my heat which also happened to be the fastest heat. The first two finishers in my race ran Olympic qualifying times! However, the experience was amazing; just the feeling of lining up on the line, in a 10,000 seated stadium, crowd roaring, and having your name called out and your picture shown on the large screen as well as on national television made it all worthwhile.

Two days later, after the closing ceremony and after party I returned home to Scotland to enjoy the next two weeks before I head back to DePaul for pre-season training. The whole experience was amazing and hopefully if you read my blog in around 12 months time I will have made the NCAA steeplechase final and made the British team for the European U23 Track & Field Championships.

Take Care,
Matt