Published on 01 November 2017
Olympic marathon runner Alyson Dixon is pushing her physical limits to the max with the support of sports scientists at the University as she’s selected for Team England in the 2018 Commonwealth Games.
Alyson, a Sunderland Sports Development graduate, is delighted to be adding another accolade to her list of achievements after being chosen to represent her country at the Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast in Australia.
This will be the second time she has been selected for the Games and she fully expects to use 2018 as an opportunity to excise some demons. In 2014, while running with the lead group in the Glasgow Commonwealth Games, Alyson suffered an injury that caused her to stop and have to drop out. The injury led to her spending a significant time in an orthopaedic boot while continuing to train by aqua running.
She said: “I was so proud to compete in Glasgow and was devastated when I got injured, especially as I was running so comfortably at the time. I’m delighted now to be selected for CG2018 and it will allow me to put the negatives of Glasgow behind me. I am proud to represent the City of Sunderland and see the selection as a great honour.”
Alyson regularly visits the Sport and Exercise Sciences Team at the University for physiological assessment and she views this as crucial for her preparation.
This month she will be training at altitude in Font Romeu, in the French Pyrenees, and she visited the lab in the Sciences Complex prior to her departure.
She explained “The University’s labs are so well equipped and the staff are very knowledgeable and skilful. I had my fitness assessed and it ensures that I go to altitude knowing my training zones. The fact that I am able to have this work undertaken locally is a great boon to me but it is also an attestation to the knowledge and skill of the staff who work with me. They are great.”
Dr Ian Whyte, Team Leader and Principal Lecturer in Sport and Exercise, said: “The importance of the work undertaken in our labs with Alyson cannot be underestimated. Importantly, it lets her monitor her training in France to ensure that she does not work too hard. One of the biggest problems with endurance athletes, both at altitude and at sea-level, is not of training too little, but of doing too much, at too high an intensity, with inappropriate recoveries. It leads to overreaching, staleness, injury and illness.”
Alyson, has competed on the track, and roads, for Great Britain in the 2016 Rio Olympics, as well as five World Championships and three European events.
This is now her second Commonwealth Games as part of Team England with the University supporting her.