Eilish McColgan sets up new scheme; Chris Smith Memorial Fund

Saturday 12th March 2022

Triple Olympian Elish McColgan is setting up a new initiative to help young female athletes in Scotland and community athletics.

The ‘Giving Back to Track’ project found by Eilish and her partner, fellow Olympian Michael Rimmer, is a non-profit scheme aimed to inspire children from all backgrounds to enjoy athletics.

Eilish and Michael will initially focus on her club, Dundee Hawkhill Harriers, and scholarships for five young Scottish female athletes.

‘Our aim is to encourage kids in Scotland to lead an active lifestyle and to essentially give back to the sport that has given us so many incredible opportunities throughout our careers,’ said Eilish.

‘No child should be priced out of athletics, so our hope is that Giving Back to Track can be an avenue to provide support to individuals who need it the most – whether that be covering the cost of track facilities, buying training kit or paying for club fees.

‘Giving Back to Track will start locally with my home club of Dundee Hawkhill Harriers but we hope to extend this across the rest of Scotland as we continue to grow and evolve.’

Here’s a few more details on the scholarship scheme:

*The fund has been created to support female athletes across Scotland, aged 16-22 (U17, U20, U23 age groups) and will be open to all abilities.

*It’s a one-year programme and individuals are encouraged to apply via the online link, if they compete within track and field or in the sport of running.

And the community scheme:

*Giving Back to Track will be supporting Dundee Hawkhill Harriers in opening up a FREE day of athletics.

We believe that no one should be priced out of the sport and so we will be working alongside the club and the Dundee City Council, in the hope of creating some free athletic days at Caird Park Stadium in the near future.

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Remembering Chris today on his 45th birthday ?

And celebrating that we’ve been able to help another group of athletes with grants from the fund (names below ?)

Congratulations to all our successful applicants – we look forward to hearing how you all get on! ? ? pic.twitter.com/RanB5nFkne

— Chris Smith Memorial Fund (@csmemorialfund) March 3, 2022

Chris Smith Memorial Fund website

In a similar way to the project led by Eilish McColgan and Michael Rimmer, the Chris Smith Memorial Fund is already doing good work to support athletes and athletics across disciplines around Britain.

The Fund was set up following the tragic passing of former GB international hill runner Chris, who started off in athletics at Aberdeen AAC.

In fact, Aberdeen AAC as his first club was one of the first beneficiaries of the Chris Smith Memorial fund.

We now see further support as follows:

Hamish Hickey; XC, Central AC

Sarah Tait; steeplechase/XC, Lasswade AC and Stirling Uni

Jethro Lennox; to set up junior hill running section at Shettleston Harriers

Reuben Macdonald; track, Giffnock North AC.

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Tags: Chris Smith, Chris Smith Memorial Fund, Eilish McColgan