EDINBURGH basketballer Rose Anderson has taken another step towards her goal of competing at the 2012 Olympics after she was named captain of Great Britain's under-20 team.
The Portobello 20-year-old said: "I feel privileged to be representing Scotland and Great Britain, so to be made captain of the team is a big honour.
"The under-20 team is preparation for the senior GB team. My plan is to make the senior GB team
for the Olympics in 2012."
Anderson, the younger sister of Commonwealth Games champion boxer Kenny, is currently in Aldershot cramming in three daily training sessions before heading overseas to train and compete.
In August, she will take a place at University of Central Oklahoma, despite being relatively short for a basketball player.
She said: "I'm only 5'9" but I've got plenty of power and aggression. It's a big sport over there and you get to practise and get in the gym every day. Here in Scotland it's very difficult because it isn't a major sport."
"I started at primary school and a lot of people have helped me and kept me focussed," said Rose, a long-term member of City of Edinburgh Kool Kats. Anderson was one of the first players taken on by the East of Scotland Institute of Sport when it started supporting basketball and she has had unlimited access to a wide range of support services including sports medicine, sports science, strength and conditioning, and career and lifestyle guidance.
"ESIS has been a brilliant help," she added. "I had ankle trouble and they gave me help with loads of exercises and physio. It's good to have it there, especially being free, because it can be so expensive to get treatment."
With just one year left before she moves up to senior level, it seems all the pieces are fitting in at the right time.
• TEENAGE Capital basketball star Hilary Wood, who is the Scotland under-14 captain and plays for Polonia Phoenix, is one of two Scots selected for a European girls basketball talent development programme in Slovenia next week.
Her Scotland team-mate Sarah Thomson, of St Mirren, is also going to the event which is being funded by the 2012 London Olympic fund. They will be joined by girls from the other home nations and across Europe.
The full article contains 395 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
