Former rugby star Evans eyes track career
07 February 2012 | 08:58:06 AM | Source: AAP
Former Scotland rugby international Thom Evans has been training with a leading athletics coach as he contemplates a new sporting life on the track.
The 26-year-old has turned his attention to athletics since recovering from a severe neck injury in Wales two years ago that ended his rugby career.
Evans, who won 10 caps for Scotland and whose brother Max played in the side that lost to England in their Calcutta Cup Six Nations opener at Murrayfield last weekend, is to run in the 60 metres in the Scottish national senior indoor championships at Glasgow’s Kelvin Hall on February 19.
He has been training with Margot Wells, wife of Scottish Olympic great Allan, the 100 metres gold medallist at the 1980 Games in Moscow, and a noted coach in her own right.
Evans, who is aiming to compete in the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, told the Scottish Athletics website on Monday: "I am looking forward to running in Glasgow. I am excited by the prospect of competing there.
"When I played there for Glasgow Rugby we used to do warm-ups in the Kelvin Hall in the winter so I am familiar with the arena and the track.
"At the moment I am simply gaining some race experience in the 60 metres. It is all new but I am enjoying that and the idea is to build some basic sprinting fitness.
“Further down the line I would think there’s more chance I will be looking at 200 metres or 400m. That’s more the goal to be honest. You have to start somewhere and get used to actual races as well as training.”
Evans’s rugby career came to a sickening end when he suffered a neck injury during Scotland’s 31-24 defeat by Wales in the Six Nations in Cardiff on February 13, 2010 and he eventually retired in July that year.
Scotland return to the Millennium Stadium for the first time since that match when they play Wales - who beat Ireland 23-21 in their opening match - on Sunday in the second round of this year’s Six Nations.