Today we joined a Glow meet with some athletes that are competing in the Commonwealth Games. The athletes we got to hear from and ask questions were Sean Docherty who is a table tennis player, Eilish McColgan who will compete in the 3000m steeplechase, Meggan Dawson-Farrell who is a wheelchair racer and Ailsa Wyllie who plays hockey. There were lots of schools from all over Scotland joining in the meet – we even said a hello to Miss Rae’s old primary school!
Meggan told us that she set a record of 3 minutes 42 seconds in the 1500m wheelchair race when she was 19. Meggan also came 9th in the 2012 London Olympics. At the Commonwealth games there is only one event in her category and that is the 1500m. It was Meggan’s mum that took her to a sports camp when she was younger that was when she got into wheelchair racing. She has a coach now but her parents help a lot too.
We asked some questions and they answered these for us. We asked Sean what he was studying at university. He is studying Sports Science at Edinburgh University and does his training outside this.
We also asked about the athletes diets. They told us to cut down on sugar as this gives too many sugar highs followed by lows. They also said that they all followed a balanced diet with lots of chicken, fish and eggs. The thing they said was most important to think about was keeping hydrated. Nothing is off limits but everything in moderation.
Eilish was telling us all about when she broke her foot while she was running. This sounds nasty for a runner!! She had to have surgery to fix it and got metal pins in to help it fix. We asked her if it was difficult coming back after her injury and she told us it was really hard but she just had to work through it and now she is back competing again. She told us to have a look at her blog to see some ‘gruesome pictures’ as she described them – the blog is blocked in school but we’re all going straight home to look!! Eilish has a famous mum too – her mum is Liz McColgan who was also a runner. She said her mum inspired her. Miss Rae has been in a race with her mum and her mum came first with Miss Rae coming second.
Ailsa Wyllie, in addition to her hockey playing, does work with Active Schools. This means she comes in and helps coaching in schools.
We really enjoyed this Glow meet and learned lots about these Athletes. We will be looking out for them and cheering them on in just a few weeks time!
We will be looking out for more Glow meets that we can join!
