Deeside College Sports Scholarship student Abbie Oliver has had a busy November.
The runner from Connah’s Quay took first place in the under 20s category of the Abergele 5km road race and in the process was ranked fourth in the overall senior category. She also beat off tough competition from students from across Wales to take first in the Welsh Colleges Cross Country Championships held at the Northop Campus of Deeside College.
As a result of this run she will go on to represent Welsh Colleges at the British Colleges Championships to be held at Loughborough University next year. Not one to stand still, the BTEC National Diploma in Sports Studies student also travelled to Brecon to run in the Welsh Schools Cross Country Championships where she finished in sixth place.
Abbie is also a member of the Welsh Development Squad which has been assembled to finely tune the talents of the country’s top athletes in the hope of producing an Olympic gold medallist at the London 2012 Olympic Games.
The Deeside College Sports Scholarship is worth £1,000 per year for up to 2 years. It is for those students who have exceptional sporting ability and who have representative honours in at least one sport at county or national level.
Applicants must also have an excellent school report. Now in its fourth year, the scheme is designed to support students and provide financial assistance towards the cost of fulfilling their sporting achievement.
“The Deeside College Sports Scholarship is a huge help” said first year scholar Abbie.
“I’ve used the first instalment to pay for specialist cross country running spikes, winter training equipment and I’ve also put the funds towards competition travel expenses.”
