Nominations are open for the Sunday Mail and sportscotland Scottish Sports Awards 2010!

sportscotland are once again the title sponsor for the awards, organised by the Sunday Mail, which recognise people who have made a special contribution to Scottish sport. From local people and community sports clubs to world class Scottish athletes, we are looking for you to nominate the people who have inspired you in 2010.

Following on from last year’s success, we will once again be honouring the Local Club of the Year, along with a new category celebrating school sport. The awards website is now open, inviting you to nominate for any of the 13 categories, including; Local Hero, Inspirational Performance, Young Sports Person of the Year, Sport of the Year and the sportscotland Scottish Sports Personality of the Year.

The winners will be announced at a star-studded ceremony held at the Hilton Glasgow on Thursday 2nd December. STV will also broadcast coverage from the glittering event on 5th December.

To nominate your sporting stars for 2010, by the closing date of Sunday 24th October, visit the Sunday Mail and sportscotland Scottish Sports Awards website: www.sundaymailsportsawards.co.uk You can also keep up to date with all of the latest news on the awards by following sportscotland on Twitter: www.twitter.com/sportscotland
 

This feed was drawn from the Tayside and Fife Institute of Sport :: TFIS website

Dundee track sprinter, Kevin Stewart won the Sprint gold medal in the Scottish Championships at Meadowbank at the weekend, beating Bruce Croall 2-0 in the final.

The title was the 19 year old’s second piece of good news this month. A fortnight ago his place was confirmed in the Delhi Commonwealth Games bound Team Scotland.

Stewart achieved the Delhi qualifying time a year ago after finishing seventh in the Sprint at the World Junior Track Championships in Moscow where he broke the British junior record. His time of 10.34 seconds still stands as the fastest time for a British under 18 year old.

“It was great to be selected, good to know that all my work and dedication has paid off,” said Stewart, who will ride the Team Sprint in Delhi. “Now I've got to work even harder before the Games to do the best I can.”

Stewart has already worked hard this summer as a full time cyclist based at the World Cycling Centre in Switzerland. Coached there by American Andy Sparks, and with all distractions put to one side, he has accumulated three months of training without any distractions.

“My aim this year was to be able to train as hard as I could and it’s amazing to be totally focused on cycling,” he said.

“Obviously if you have that mentality and that lifestyle you are going to see improvements, so it's been perfect.”

Stewart has only been a cyclist for four years. From a background of swimming and triathlon, the latter he describes as ‘not being my forte’, he tried cycling at the Discovery Junior Club. He was instantly hooked and has since risen steadily through the ranks.

Helping Stewart make a smooth transition through the sport since 2006 is the Tayside & Fife Institute of Sport (TFIS), part of sportscotland’s area institute network which focuses on preparing Scotland’s best athletes to perform on the world stage by providing high performance expertise.

Alan Sinclair has been his Strength & Conditioning Co-ordinator since the start. Maggie Hendry is his physiotherapist.

The ultimate aim of his S&C programme is to maximise strength and explosive power in his legs through basic squatting exercises, and to build general upper body and core strength and stability to allow him to transfer this strength and power effectively whilst on the bike.

“The TFIS have helped me a great deal with Strength & Conditioning, physiotherapy and on the medical side,” said Stewart.

“Strength and conditioning is an essential part of my training and racing, and the TFIS have been a huge help. I couldn't have done it without them.”

This feed was drawn from the Tayside and Fife Institute of Sport :: TFIS website

Markinch trampolinist Joe Yates is priming himself for international competition after being selected to compete for Great Britain for the first time.

The 17-year-old, a member of Tiggers Trampoline Club in Newport, is understandably delighted to be part of the British Youth (under 19) team to take on Germany in the event to be held in Frankfurt from 24-26th September this year.

"I'm ecstatic and I can't believe an opportunity like this has come along," said Yates, who has also been picked as a reserve for the World Age Group Championships later this year.

"I was aiming to get in the GB team but I didn't think I would do it this early in my career, so it's quite a shock that I've been selected."

Yates is only the second Scottish male trampolinist to make it into a GB team. The first to do so is his coach, Keir Stewart, who achieved the feat and reached the World Championships in 2003 before a serious leg injury took its toll on his career.

Stewart, who on top of a full-time job is working his way through the coaching levels and is on track to qualify as a High Performance Coach, has developed Yates's talents for the past two years.

His current routine is a dizzy-making combination of multiple back and Front somersaults and twists. He is working on mastering a routine which will include ten double somersaults many of which with multiple twists before eventually progressing to learning triple somersaults.

Yates was just ten when he started the sport. "I went to school with the sister of the World (Age Group Synchronized Trampoline) Champion, Caitlin Thompson," he remembers. "One day she came into school with all her medals and I went to see her trampolining. She was absolutely amazing and I knew then I wanted to get into this."

Until then he had been to recreational gymnastics but made the switch to trampolining, a sport he describes as "almost like flying." Flyers was the gymnastics club which first developed his talents. He has since moved to Tiggers where he works three times a week with Stewart.

Stewart describes Yates in glowing terms as "a very naturally gifted trampolinist, with the perfect attributes of strength and power."

Yates has equal praise for his coach: "Kier is amazing and he has brought me all the way - I would be nothing if it wasn't for him."

Having been nominated by the sport’s governing body, Scottish Gymnastics, Yates has been supported for a year by sportscotland's regional institute network, through the Tayside & Fife Institute of Sport.

The institute focuses on preparing Scotland's best athletes to perform on the world stage by providing high performance expertise.

Its Strength & Conditioning coaches, Gil Stevenson and Sean Tough, coordinate Yates’ physical conditioning programme. Its Performance Lifestyle advisor, Mary McClung, helped him secure a place at Adam Smith College. With Stewart she will help him manage the demands of college and training over the coming weeks.

"The institute has set up a specific, tailored strength and conditioning package for Joe," said Stewart.

"He has grown a lot in the last year so it helps to be able to condition specifically muscles that he was having issues with. He has had a lot of help from the institute physiotherapist, improving his flexibility.

“The support has been fantastic.”

This feed was drawn from the Tayside and Fife Institute of Sport :: TFIS website

Dundee’s Ross Stott, one of the youngest hockey players named in Team Scotland for the Delhi Commonwealth Games this October, had always hoped to compete in a Commonwealth Games. He just hadn’t expected it to be so soon.

“Originally, I was aiming for the Glasgow Games in 2014 so to get picked for this one is pretty amazing and a real bonus,” said the 22 year old, who helped impress selectors at last November’s World Cup qualifier in New Zealand by scoring the goal which secured Scotland’s bronze medal.

Last year Stott was named in Scotland’s 42 man Delhi Games squad, which he described as ‘a really competitive group’. Through the year it has been whittled down to a final 16 which Stott is in, despite tearing ankle ligaments part way through the selection process.

“I wasn't able to run for four weeks and I missed the majority of the second half of the season,” said Stott, who was brought back to fitness by the Tayside & Fife Institute of Sport, part of the sportscotland institute of sport’s regional network which provides high performance expertise to Scotland’s potential world class talent.

“I saw Maggie Hendry, physio at the institute, twice a week then I built myself back up to where I was before.

“I did everything the coaches asked; trained hard and committed myself to the programme. They saw that I had improved and noticed my work rate and general fitness.”

In Delhi Scotland’s men face two difficult opponents in the group stages - Pakistan in their opening match, then the world’s top team, Australia.

“It's not going to be easy games against those, but you don't expect any games to be easy,” said Stott.

“Scotland doesn’t usually get the opportunity to play the best in the world so it will be good to see how I can compete against Australia, who are the best team in the world at the moment by a long way. This is my first major tournament so hopefully I will do myself some justice against the best players.”

Team Scotland will up the ante over the next month to ensure they meet the challenge in the best of shape. Physical conditioning will intensify and training in a heat chamber will help the athletes acclimatize for what they can expect in India.

“The institute strength and conditioning training is important because the teams we are going to play against will be stronger than we are used to,” said Stott. “It is important for us to get a good strength programme so we are fit enough to work hard on the pitch.”

The experience of playing top teams will be invaluable as Scotland’s men look towards competing for a medal place at the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games. A top eight position for Scotland’ men in Delhi would be regarded as a good result.

“That would be realistic for us,” said Stott. “But we are going out to play our best and see what happens.

“The World Cup qualifier in New Zealand was a good example. We went out there to see what happened and we ended up coming back with a medal. Fingers crossed, maybe we will do the same in Delhi and cause some upsets.”
 

This feed was drawn from the Tayside and Fife Institute of Sport :: TFIS website

Dundee shooter Sian Bruce added to her growing stash of medals in helping the British team into the bronze position at this weekend’s World Shotgun Championships in Munich.

 The 16 year old, winner of July’s European Junior Championship, posted an individual score of 67 to finish just one place behind the bronze medallist.

“Being one target away from a medal was a bit annoying but I was pleased that the team got the bronze,” she said.

A year ago Sian finished tenth in this competition but much has changed for her in the last season. Whereas in the past she might have been overawed by competing at top international level, regular exposure at this level has helped her adjust.

“The Worlds was a good experience and the biggest event I have been to because it had pistol, rifle and shot gun,” said Sian, who has been Britain’s No.2 lady’s shooter for the majority of the season, behind Beijing Olympian Elena Little.

“Because I've seen what a Worlds is like and repeated it, I know what to expect so it becomes more familiar competing at this level.”

Iain MacGregor, Scotland’s Discipline Performance Manager for shotgun, has coached Sian at Auchterhouse Country Sports for the past two years.

Over the same time she has been supported by the Tayside & Fife Institute of Sport, part of sportscotland’s area institute network whose focus is on preparing Scotland’s best athletes to perform on the world stage by providing high performance expertise.

TFIS physiotherapist, Maggie Hendry and Strength & Conditioning coaches, Alan Sinclair and Sean Tough, have created a programme which have made her fitter for her sport and prevent associated injuries.

“I've improved a lot over this last year,” said Sian. “Last year I could shoot really well at home but when I went abroad my scores dropped a little, but this year they have gone up so it's much better.”

Sian now has two GB selection events before winding down her competition schedule to begin preparing for the 2011 season.
 

This feed was drawn from the Tayside and Fife Institute of Sport :: TFIS website

Scotland’s 400m hurdling record holder Eilidh Child ticked off another season’s goal in reaching the final of the European Championships in Barcelona.

Had she maintained her stride pattern on the back straight in that race it is likely she would have exceeded her hopes.

Eilidh’s initial reaction at finishing eighth in a time of 55.51 seconds was disappointed; a week later she had brought things into perspective.

“I would like to have given a better account of myself in the final but looking back I had gone there to get to the final and that's what I did,” said the 23 year old.

“It was my first major championship final so I've got to look at the positives. And if I had run a good clean race I would have been pleased.”

For the past two seasons Eilidh has been coached by Stuart Hogg and Aileen McGillivary. Her progress has benefited from the input of key Tayside & Fife Institute of Sport staff who have worked in close partnership with Stuart and Aileen. TFIS support has allowed her progress to be tracked methodically and assisted in her remaining fit and healthy throughout the season.

“The Institute support is an immense help,” said Stuart. “They have made a big contribution to helping us understand certain areas that need improvement and need work on, as well as highlighting things that have improved from last year that show up.

“I'm very pleased with her progress this year. There's no question that she's improved. She's run PB's, she's got the Scottish record. The target was to get to the final of the Europeans, which was achieved.

“She is coming to this arena very quickly, it's not easy at this level, and she has had to learn very quickly. She knows what she needs to do to improve and it's up to us to go away and work on it and take that forward.”

This feed was drawn from the Tayside and Fife Institute of Sport :: TFIS website

Physiotherapist (0.6 FTE Permanent)

MAIN DUTIES

If successful, you will report to the Head of Physiotherapy.
For full details of the main duties of this post, please refer to the Job Description.
You are requested to submit your application on the basis of addressing the key job classification factors outlined in the Job Description.

FURTHER INFORMATION ON sportscotland

For more information about sportscotland, please visit our website www.sportscotland.org.uk Here you will find details of our organisational principles, business priorities and key partners, in addition to strategic documents such as our Corporate Plan 2007/2011, Lottery Strategy 2007/2011, Business Plan 2008/2009, and the National Strategy for Sport.
 

CONDITIONS OF APPOINTMENT

This post will be based Dundee (Tayside and Fife institute of sport), however a the postholder will be required to be mobile in line of the needs of the business.
A standard working week is 37 hours (pro-rata), excluding lunch breaks Monday to Friday. However, you may be required to work additional hours from time to time to meet service requirements. Under a Local Agreement, between management and staff, the working week has been increased to 37.5 hours (pro-rata) to compensate for three extra days annual leave to be taken between the Christmas and New Year public holidays.
sportscotland is an equitable employer and applications will be considered from individuals wishing to be considered for job share. To view our Equal Opportunities Policy please see the Forms and Policies for Jobseekers section on our website. A copy of the Job Share policy is available on request from the Human Resources Team.

SALARY

The annual salary is currently on a scale:
Pay Band E £26,937 - £39,404 (pro-rata)
Salaries are payable monthly in arrears by BACS transfer. A personal performance planning system is in place.
sportscotland has the delegated authority to negotiate its own terms and conditions of service, including pay matters. This is undertaken by regular consultation between sportscotland management and the recognised staff side representatives through collective bargaining. Candidates are advised therefore that the terms and conditions outlined in these Notes for Applicants may be subject to variation in the future.

SUPERANNUATION

If appointed, you may choose to join an approved superannuation scheme. Should you choose to join the Local Government Superannuation (Scotland) Scheme, administered by Strathclyde Pension Fund, your salary will be enhanced by 4%. The employee’s contribution’s are tiered based on income.

ANNUAL LEAVE AND PUBLIC HOLIDAYS

The annual leave entitlement is 25 days (pro-rata) to be taken by arrangement with your Line Manager. After 10 years’ service the leave entitlement increases to 34 days (pro-rata). The leave year runs from 1 April to 31 March and in the first year of service you would receive a pro-rated entitlement covering the period from start date to 31 March. In addition, there is an annual entitlement of 10½ days fixed public holidays (pro-rata).

TRAVEL AND SUBSISTENCE ALLOWANCES

Travel and subsistence expenses are reimbursed at our current rates.

PROBATION, CONFIRMATION AND NOTICE

Your appointment will be confirmed after the satisfactory completion of a probationary period of six month, during which employment is terminable by one week’s written notice. Thereafter, the employment is terminable on either side by one months written notice.

DISCLOSURE SCOTLAND CHECK

Candidates selected for interview will be required to complete a Self Declaration Form, which will be sent separately. We will request a Disclosure Scotland check to be carried out for the successful candidate. Please refer to www.disclosurescotland.co.uk to view the Disclosure Scotland Code of Practice and further information, if required.

HEALTH

Before taking up any employment, you will be required to complete a medical questionnaire. Any previous illness or recurring medical problem which might affect your performance of the duties of the post should be mentioned at interview.
 

APPLICATIONS

To apply for this position, you should complete the following forms. They can be downloaded from our website www.sportscotland.org.uk/jobs under ‘Forms and Policies for Job Seekers’.
Application Form (a CV may only be attached as supplementary information in support of a fully completed application form).
Equal Opportunities Monitoring Form (our Equal Opportunity Policy is available on our website).
Completed forms can be e-mailed to hrrecruitment@sportscotland.org.uk or returned to the following address under Confidential cover no later than close of play Monday 16th August, 2010.
Human Resources
sportscotland
Doges
Templeton on the Green
62 Templeton Street
Glasgow
G40 1DA

Applications received after the closing date will not be considered.
Applicants wishing to be considered for job share should indicate this on the front page of the application form.
Any complaints regarding our Recruitment and Selection Procedure should be directed to the Head of Human Resources at the address above.

This feed was drawn from the Tayside and Fife Institute of Sport :: TFIS website

Dundee gymnast Kirsty Campbell is making good progress towards her ultimate goal of competing for Scotland in the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow after producing her best ever results in recent competitions.

At this month’s British Championships in Guildford the 14 year old finished fifth in the vault final and fourteenth overall.

Before this year Kirsty had never qualified for apparatus finals at British Championship level. At the same event last year she finished twenty second overall.

“That's the best I've ever done in any competition,” said Kirsty, who started gymnastics aged four and is coached by Bea Peterson at DGC2K.

“I got an overall score of 48 which is my best and I did well at the Manchester Open just before, where I came third against everybody in Britain at my age group.”

Kirsty, Scottish Champion for the past two years, has the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games as her long term focus and she should be at her best when the event comes to Scotland.

It’s a goal which Scotland’s National Coach, Sandy Richardson believes is achievable if she can maintain her current progress.

“Glasgow 2014 would be the aim for Kirsty and I’d say that if she keeps developing the way she is then she is looking bright for that,” he said.

“She has done brilliantly this year and her results have gone from strength to strength.

“She's has made her improvements all round. She has increased her difficulty on floor considerably, which means she is putting harder skills in, and her vault has become more secure.

“On the bars she has developed so she has what we call a ‘full complement routine’, where she actually has every move that she’s supposed to have in there. There are only a couple of gymnasts in the whole of Scotland that have got that. And she's still a junior.”

Supporting Kirsty for the past season is the Tayside & Fife Institute of Sport, part of sportscotland’s area institute network whose focus is on preparing Scotland’s best athletes to perform on the world stage by providing high performance expertise.

“The fact that she has a full year in the Institute is significant in her development and her progress,” said Sandy

“She has worked extremely hard towards everything she has achieved. She retained the Scottish junior title, which is a feat that has only been done a couple of times before.

“To increase from twenty second to fourteenth in the British Championships, come fifth on the vault final and make floor reserve is testament to the work she has done.”

This feed was drawn from the Tayside and Fife Institute of Sport :: TFIS website

Kinross 400m hurdler Eilidh Child has been named in the Great Britain and Northern Ireland Team to compete at the SPAR European Championships in Barcelona (27 July- 1 August).

Child, tipped by UK Athletics for a ‘breakthrough championships at the iconic Olympic stadium’, will be in the team with ten medallists from the 2009 World Championships in Berlin and five from the World Indoors held in Doha earlier this year.

“I’ve been to the European juniors before but this is the first time I have been in the senior event,” said the delighted 23 year old.

Child tasted success at last month’s European Team Cup in Norway where she surpassed even her own expectations and finished second in a strong field behind Russian Natalya Antyukh. This was an impressive showing from the athlete who admits amongst the seniors she is a relative unknown.

But it was in Poland, also in June, where she secured the European Championships qualifying time: “I recorded an A time of 55.17 in Poland this month, breaking the Scottish record which got me in the team.”

Child’s progress has for the past two seasons benefited from the input of key Tayside & Fife Institute of Sport staff who have worked in close partnership with the coaching team, Stuart Hogg and Aileen McGillivary. TFIS support has allowed her progress to be tracked methodically and assisted in her remaining fit and healthy throughout the season.

She is certainly making her mark on the European stage and is hoping that she gets the chance to impress at the Commonwealths in Delhi later this year. Child also admits it will be nice to represent Scotland at a major competition and has already achieved the team’s pre-selection criteria.

“This season has been going really well, touch wood I won’t pick up any injuries on the run in to Delhi,” she said. “I definitely want to be part of the team and it would be very special to represent my country. Right now though all of my focus is on doing well at the Europeans.”

Said UKA Head Coach Charles van Commenee: “The start of the European Championships coincides with the mark of two years to 2012 and this event provides us with a great marker of how far we have progressed and how far we still have to go.

“We have a number of strong medal contenders in the squad and I am looking forward to witnessing some outstanding performances in British vests.”

This feed was drawn from the Tayside and Fife Institute of Sport :: TFIS website

Dundee shooter Sian Bruce returned home from the European Junior Championships in Kazan, Russia today with the winner’s crown.

Aged just 16 Sian was one of the youngest competitors in the event, for Europe’s best under 20 year old skeet shooters. But she beat off top competition from Denmark, France, Spain and Russia, winning by a margin of two points.

“I thought I had a pretty good chance and when I started shooting it totally fell into place, it was just right on the day,” said Sian, who was four points ahead before the final and won the title after shooting 89 from 100.

“It's amazing and my biggest achievement by far.”

Iain MacGregor, Scotland’s Discipline Performance Manager for shotgun, is the coach that has developed Sian’s talent at Auchterhouse Country Sports for the past two years.

Supporting her since November 2008 is the Tayside & Fife Institute of Sport, part of sportscotland’s area institute network whose focus is on preparing Scotland’s best athletes to perform on the world stage by providing high performance expertise.

Working in tandem, TFIS physiotherapist Maggie Hendry and Strength & Conditioning coaches Alan Sinclair and Sean Tough, have created a programme that will make her fitter specifically for her sport and prevent injuries associated with the sport.

“Sian is immensely talented and the most natural shooter in the world,” said Iain. “This magnificent achievement is a credit to the huge amount of work Sian has put in, and continues to put in, to her shooting.

“She deserves much credit for developing her natural talent, backed up by a strong team of advisers at the Tayside & Fife Institute of Sport. We have all been working together closely for some time now and have our eyes on an Olympic place for Sian in 2012.

“It is an honour and a privilege for me to be her shooting coach."

Sian, who has made meteoric progress through the sport and qualified for her first World Cup event earlier this summer, will now look forward to the Shotgun World Championships in early August. She competed in last year’s event but 12 months on is a better competitor.

“I used to be really laid back but now I’m far more organised and I know what I'm doing,” she added.

“Iain is a great coach and the institute has helped me a lot. I've been training more, shooting more during the week and going to bigger competitions. It has all helped me become a much better shooter and winning the European Championships has pushed my confidence much higher.”
 

This feed was drawn from the Tayside and Fife Institute of Sport :: TFIS website