Young athlete - Diane Ramsay
Diane Ramsay, 21, graduated from Strathclyde University recently and now looks forward to being part of the host nation’s 4x400m squad at the Commonwealth Games.
The Victoria Park City of Glasgow athlete received her computer science degree at a graduation ceremony at Strathclyde’s Barony Hall and hopes to take her 53.61 speed on to the Hampden Park track.
The East Dunbartonshire sprinter started competitive running when she was at primary school, after seeing her elder brother take part in races, and was already competing at national level while a pupil at St Ninian’s High School, Kirkintilloch.
She secured her Team Scotland place after a series of strong performances, including a 400m PB at Loughborough in May and an international event at Glasgow’s Emirates Arena where she helped the 4x400m team to set a Scottish indoor record of 3:35.27.
“I got a call from the head of Scottish Athletics to tell me I was in the relay team three days before it was officially announced,” she says. “I had a lot of people asking but I had to keep the secret until then.
“It’s great to be in the team. I had hoped I had done enough to make it so I was mostly relieved that it was official”.
Diane is captain of Victoria Park City of Glasgow Athletics Club and trains at Crownpoint Sports Complex in Glasgow’s east end.
While at Strathclyde, she has been a member of the University’s elite athletes programme, supported by the alumni fund, which provides bursaries to talented students to help them combine study with competitive sport. Her studies included a 10-week internship with financial company JP Morgan, where she will be taking up a post as an applications developer after graduation.
“I always enjoyed computing at school and was quite strong at maths as well, so studying computer science was a good way to combine them,” she adds. “As well as working with JP Morgan, my final year project was suggested by them and it was good to be able to keep in touch with them.
“The department of computer and information sciences have been a great support in helping me balance my studies with my training, as has the centre for sport and recreation. I’ve also had a lot of support from people in athletics like Lee McConnell – as a Commonwealth Games medallist, she has the type of experience you can’t buy and is very grounded at the same time”.
Diane joins the relay pool alongside Gemma Nicol, Zoey Clark, Kirsten McAslan, Lynsey Sharp and Team Scotland captain Eilidh Child.
“I had experience of a big competition when I ran in the international event at the Emirates in January,” Diane said. “There were 5000 people there and the noise was incredible, so imagine how it will be with more than 50,000 at Hampden!”
You can find further performance stats on Diane on Power of 10 here.
» Support young athletics via the Ron Pickering Memorial Fund, see rpmf.org.uk
