Athletic Society up and running

Athletic Society up and running

The sport societies continue to grow in number at Christ Church as the new Athletics Society has been recently set up in time for the new season.

It may seem quite strange that Christ Church has failed to have an Athletics team as of now as it is seen as a very popular sport and is encouraged strongly throughout secondary school, however, due to the time of year in which athletics is participated it has always been a struggle in years gone by to create a successful society.

Last year, it was near on impossible to find out about the athletic society and who was in charge of it. A Canterbury athletic team was competing last year but at a small level, there was around 5 team members that competed once or twice a year but it did seem that it was slightly detached from the university.

This year, however, through a number of athlete’s a successful society has been established around the University and is currently training to be in good condition to compete come the start of the season.

Steps are already being taken in the right direction for the new athletics society; through the internet social networking site ‘facebook’ a group has been created to find out more about the society and who to get in contact with.

One of the bodies behind the creation of the athletics team, Glen Butler, told us about how the society came about and what are his immediate plans for the society "basically myself and a few others are looking to get it fully functioning by the time the next fresher's fayre comes around so we can get as many people interested as possible. We're also looking to try and get tracksuits for training just like the others unis and our football and rugby teams" Butler continued “but unfortunately lack of knowledge about the society and lack of facilities has made it really hard to get going this year."

It would seem all that is left for athletics to become a success at Christ Church is the performance of the athletes themselves this season and whether or not the society will continue to grow in popularity. If so then it is apparent that Christ Church could be on to another sporting success.

By Samuel Francis

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Steph White is re-elected as Sport Sabbatical for second year

Steph White is re-elected as Sport Sabbatical for second year

After a manic week for the potential sabbatical staff at Christ Church Union, Steph White has once again won the students vote to be the Sports and Societies Sabbatical officer.

Red banners covered the Student Union at Christ Church with the slogan 'Steph White is Sports at CCCU' which evidently, helped sway the students vote, as after 1 week, 1036 total votes and 5 hours of counting, evidently the students agreed.

White's first year in the Sports Sabbatical position was clearly a success as more students taking part in more sports than ever before. The introduction of a new Athletics society and the further development of the American football team were mere notches on the Steph White Sports sabbatical belt.

A common belief amongst the students as to why Steph retained the sports position at the union is down to the creation of the intramural football league. Cut backs in the university football society had to be made due to financial difficulties at the start of the year meaning less positions to be filled, creating more hopefuls leaving football trials disappointed. However, with the creation of the new intramural football league enables those disappointed potentials a chance to play football at a competitive level.

The success at Canterbury Christ Church this year at a sporting level will have also contributed greatly to Whites success as at the time of the election 14 of the 20 sports teams were top of their respective leagues.

Steph White is now preparing to enter her second and final spell in the position of Sports Sabbatical Officer at CCCU and has promised to find another addition space for sport to be played next year as the congestion at the home of Christ Church Sport (Stodmarsh) is becoming ridiculous.

Joining Steph in the Sabbatical positions next year will be Kal Sajaad, currently Media and Services officer, will be taking up the new role of Student Activities, current welfare officer, Steve Godwin, won the vote to become the next Union President and taking his place as welfare officer is Silvia Rasca.

By Samuel Francis

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