Edinburgh Athletic Club is a British athletics club based in

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

, Scotland. The club is based primarily at the

Meadowbank Sports Centre Meadowbank Stadium (officially the Meadowbank Sports Centre) is a multi-purpose sports facility located in the Meadowbank, Edinburgh, Meadowbank area of Edinburgh, Scotland. Built on the site of the earlier New Meadowbank and Old Meadowbank spo ...

on London Road and train on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings. Although founded in 2007 the club has a rich history under multiple other names.

History

The origins of the club date back to 1885 and the formation of Edinburgh Harriers who were based in the Western part of the city. They were followed by the creation of three other clubs so that the whole city could be catered for. The Edinburgh Northern Harriers arrived in 1889 and the Edinburgh Southern Harriers in 1897. Finally in 1922 the Cannon Athletic Club (later Edinburgh Eastern Harriers) were formed. The club's first Olympic gold medalist was

Wyndham Halswelle Wyndham Halswelle (30 May 1882 – 31 March 1915) was a British Sport of athletics, athlete. He won the controversial Athletics at the 1908 Summer Olympics – Men's 400 metres, 400 m race at the 1908 Summer Olympics, becoming the only athlete ...

in the 400 metres event at the

1908 Summer Olympics The 1908 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the IV Olympiad and also known as London 1908) were an international multi-sport event held in London, England, from 27 April to 31 October 1908. The 1908 Games were originally schedu ...

in London. In 1961 the Edinburgh Harriers (who by now had a ladies section), Northern Harriers and Eastern Harriers all merged to become the first named Edinburgh Athletic Club but the Southern Harriers continued independently. In 1968, Southern Harriers became the first Scottish club to participate in the inaugural

British Athletics League The British Athletics League was a men-only track and field Track and field (or athletics in British English) is a sport that includes Competition#Sports, athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name used i ...

and experienced some success, finishing third in 1975 and runner-up in 1976, while the women's Southern Harriers won the inaugural UK Women's Athletic League in 1975. Later the Southern Harriers would race temporarily under the names Caledonian Park Harriers (men) and Edinburgh Woollen Mill (women) for sponsorship purposes. In 1996, the City of Edinburgh Athletic Club club was formed when Edinburgh Athletic Club and Edinburgh Southern Harriers (men) merged to finally unify all of the men's clubs in the city. In 2006, the Southern Harriers (women) won the UK athletics league for the second time. The final amalgamation came during 2007, when the men's club City of Edinburgh Athletics Club and Edinburgh Southern Harriers (women) became the club as it is today, a single city club for both men and women. The first major success under the new name came with the women's section of the club after they won the UK women's athletic league in both 2013 and 2014.

Honours

, runner-up; 1976 * UK Women's Athletic League; champions 1975, 2006, 2013, 2014

Notable athletes

Olympians

*Scottish unless stated

Commonwealth Games

Other

Allister Hutton Allister Hutton (born 18 July 1954) is a former elite long-distance runner from Scotland, who won the London Marathon in 1990. He competed in three consecutive Commonwealth Games The Commonwealth Games is a quadrennial international mult ...

( 1990 London Marathon winner)

References

{{Reflist Sports clubs and teams established in 2007 Athletics clubs in Scotland 2007 establishments in Scotland Sport in Edinburgh