Emma Hagqvistwill be flying the flag for Griffith this week as she gets set to run this year’s annual Gold Coast Marathon on July 1.
The Swedish national is currently a visiting research fellow from the Mid Sweden University in Ostersund. She is working with Griffith’s Hopkins Centre and is studying working environments and the effect they have on our health from a gender perspective.
Emma has been living on the Gold Coast for just three months with her partner and young child, and saw the Marathon as a good opportunity to prove her fitness and promote the university at the same time.
Currently running up to 60 kilometres per week in her training for the event, Emma says that although she loves running, cross-country skiing is her preferred sport back in her native Sweden.
“In Sweden cross-country is really popular, and probably not as hard on the body as running. But I am looking at a time between 3.5 – 4 hours for the race on Sunday. I can’t wait.”