University championship bronze for Leask – VIDEO

Middle distance runner Emma Leask won a bronze medal in the British University Championships in Sheffield last weekend.

The Lerwick athlete was running for Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, and said it was her most successful championship building on previous successes.

At previous university championships Leask first reached the 800m semi-final, then the following year made the final before this year taking the third place with a strong finish from the back of the pack.

Before racing in the final Leask had to compete in preliminary heats which reduced the pool of talent from 36 competitors to six.

She said: “I knew the race would go off too quickly and I planned to stay at the back and out of trouble then in the final lap would just pick off the back runners and make my way up the field to see if I could push on to get a medal. This worked perfectly for me and I did get my medal but I didn’t realise from how far back it was that I started to move forward and it must have been really nerve-racking for my Robert Gordon ‘s university supporters watching at the time.

“The results were a one, two, three for the Scottish universities and we are really pleased with that.”

• Watch the final here.