Sport/Event >

Date and Place of Birth >
24 November 1994, Wanganui, New Zealand

Height > 155cm

Coached by >
Kevin Bowerbank

Date started the Talent Development  Programme >
About a year

School of Study>
Melksham Oak Community School (Sixth Form)

Clubs >
Wiltshire Youth Canoe Club

Biography >
Gemma has been wild water racing now since 2007 and definitely will not be giving it up anytime soon.

She not only loves the competitiveness of her sport but loves the adrenaline of paddling rough water too.

Gemma is focused to make the 2012 Junior Team and hopefully better her current ranking at the European Championships this year.

She is currently doing my A-Levels which can be hard to balance with training but it is all a good challenge and she would rather be too busy than too bored. 

Headline Result >
Reaching Top 20 in Sprint Event whilst representing Great Britain at the Junior World Championships 2011.

Joined Team Bath 1992

During his decade at the University of Bath, Ged has overseen an expansion of sports that has made it one of the top sporting universities in the country. Born in Manchester in 1963, Ged grew up in the city before attending the University of Birmingham, where he gained a degree and Post Graduate Certificate of Education. He went back to his home city to gain a masters degree in physical education at the University of Manchester. Ged worked as a PE teacher in Manchester before becoming Assistant Director of Sport at the University of Southampton.

After his appointment as Director of Sport at the University of Bath in 1992, Ged set about realising the university’s full sporting potential. He oversaw a significant £8 million investment in sporting facilities at the university campus that has seen the addition of a 400m athletics track, indoor tennis court complex, a 50m swimming pool and a range of conditioning, science and sports medicine facilities.

The culmination of this facility development led to a joint bid with the city council to host the European Youth Olympics in 1995. Acting as Director of Sports to the Games, Ged oversaw the event, which brought together almost 10,000 athletes from 48 nations.

Work was completed on a £23 million investment in additional sports facilities at the University of Bath. It features an indoor netball and badminton facility, a judo dojo, a state of the art fitness suite and an indoor running straight, as well as an indoor athletics throw/jumps area, a fencing salle and a pistol shooting range, along with state-of-the-art sports science and medicine facilities.

Ged has also led the creation of the Team Bath project, which has seen the development of 16 elite sports training squads at the university covering badminton, basketball, bob-skeleton, bobsleigh, football, hockey, judo, modern pentathlon, netball, rowing, rugby, swimming, track & field athletics, tennis, triathlon and volleyball.

Team Bath athletes now compete at the highest levels in international sport team members won three medals at the Sydney 2000 Olympics, and a gold and a bronze medal at the Athens 2004 Olympics, a silver medal at the Turin winter Olympics 2006, as well as 17 medals at the Manchester 2002 Commonwealth Games.

Football is one of Ged’s great passions. He played semi-professional football for more than 10 years. In addition to his responsibilities as departmental director, he managed Team Bath FC. Ged also was the English Universities Men’s Football Team Manager and led the student team to win the British University football title in April 2006.

The football team was only founded in the year 2000 and enjoyed considerable success in the FA Cup in 2002/3, becoming the first university side to play in the competition for 122 years. The team won its way through five preliminary and qualifying rounds before losing at home to Second Division Mansfield Town in a match televised live by Sky from the University of Bath campus. Team Bath won promotion from the BGB Southern League Premier Division to the Blue Square Conference South via a deserved 2-1 win victory against Halesowen Town in the BGB Southern League promotion play-off final.

Team Bath bowed out of football history on Saturday 25th April 2009 with their last Blue Square Conference South match after a ten year period described by manager, Ged Roddy, as “an incredible journey”.

Ged was Director of a soccer school in Canada for two years and worked as a volunteer organising promotional events during Manchester’s bid to host the 1996 Olympics. He also worked as fitness advisor to Bath rugby club and the England RFU.

Ged was also awarded an MBE in 2000 for his contribution to sport.

David Carpenter was a student at the University of Bath and then the elected Sports Association (then called Athletics Union) President in the late 1970s.

He went on to work for the Sports Council in London.  In the late 1980s and early 1990s he researched the possibility of a national lottery which would fund sport.  Convinced that this was the only way in which Britain could compete on a world stage, he lobbied government and was one of the main forces behind the creation of the National Lottery Fund with its five “good cause” beneficiaries.

The end result has been a £multi-billion injection into sport and recreation in the UK – whether at grass-roots facility level or in supporting current and potential future Olympians.

Joined Team Bath June 2004

Ian’s role is to work in the Team Bath Sports Injury Clinic as a charted physiotherapist. Currently working with Team Bath Football Squad and worked with GB Beach Volley Ball squads. He evelopes screening protocols for elite athletes.

He was Leicester City FC Team’s Physiotherapist for seven years, and Ian played football professionally with Leicester City, Glasgow Celtic, Southampton and Bournemouth.

Joined Team Bath March 2006

Liz qualified at the University of West of England, Bristol in 2002 and spent five years working within the NHS.

She has worked with Team Bath Superleague and England Netball for the last three seasons and with GB Rowing since 2007.

Liz has worked with multisports in the Sport Injury Clinic including Team Bath Tennis Academy and British Skeleton Athletes also at the Physiotherapist Headquarters for Team GB at the 2009 Winter University Games.

She is currently undertaking a Masters in Sports Physiotherapy at the University of Bath.

Her team also works closed in partnership with local Further Education colleges to deliver programmes such as the Advanced Apprenticeship in Sports Excellence (AASE) and oversees scholarship programmes, including the Talented Athlete Scholarship Scheme (TASS). Phillippa also leads on TeamBath Focus, a corporate training and team-building programme.

Phillippa has a Sport Science degree from Loughborough and an MSc in Sport and Exercise Science from Bristol University.

In 2006 Jo took over the running of Team Bath Swim School and is the first port of call for anyone who wishes to find out more about learning to swimming at Team Bath.

Jo works with a large team of swim teachers to deliver lessons for all ages and abilities from new born babies to Master’s swimmers in our 50m pool.

Joined Team Bath 16 September 2008

Talented current and future University of Bath-based athletes and their coaches will be able to work alongside one of the big names in sport from today onwards.

Brian Ashton, who led England to the finals of last year’s World Cup rugby tournament after a hugely successful playing and coaching career in the sport, has taken up a post as Director of Coaching on a consultancy basis.

He will work alongside Team Bath’s coaches and sports support staff, especially in the areas of coach development and education as well as sports science and medicine support, to develop the University’s already world-class training environment.In addition, he will apply his particular skills to the area of talent development.

As a rugby coach he had unparalleled success through his RFU National Academy set-up in identifying and nurturing young players who have since gone on to full England or Saxons caps.

“This is a significant coup for us”, said a delighted Ged Roddy, Director of Sports Development and Recreation.  “Brian will bring a passion to his work with us. He will contribute to our coaching team extensively and will have an eye for the detail of top-level sport.

“Our University sports family at Bath fielded medal winners at both the Olympic and Paralympic Games and Brian’s appointment will strengthen our elite performance line-up and create a link between research and the practical application of science to sport.  With the margins between victory and defeat becoming ever narrower at the top of sport, this is of fundamental importance”.

Roddy also sees a role for Ashton in working alongside current coaches and performance directors in each sport to help develop a future elite:  “He has a big role to play, too, in talent development and coach education.  He is an expert in the principles of high level performance and will be a touchstone for some of our younger coaches”.

Equally, Ashton will input to applied sports science projects which could have the kind of impact enjoyed by the successful projects he managed both for the RFU’s Academy and world cup sides.

Lancastrian Ashton was born in Leigh and went to school in Leigh and Lancaster before studying History and Education at Leicester University. He went on to become a teacher and then rugby coach after a playing career which included an England touring side selection.

Ashton is well-known locally having coached Bath Rugby either as Assistant or Head Coach between 1989 and 1997.  He also coached Ireland before moving on to an assistant role with England and then shouldered the main role in 2007 and 2008.  He was also England National Academy Manager from 2002 – 2007.

“I am delighted to have the opportunity to work with the University of Bath in the role of a consultant Director of Coaching”, said Ashton
“There are many talented High level performance Coaches and Athletes who operate in the University’s Sports Training Village and I am looking forward to working alongside them to ensure that all set standards that are testing and provide competition success.

“When I was the National Academy Manager and Head Coach of England   rugby we used the Sports training village as our base so I am well   aware of the facilities and expertise that the University of Bath is able to provide across a wide range of support areas and will be looking to integrate these going forward”.

Whilst 2012 is very much at the forefront of Sport thinking, the opportunities for achieving and sustaining success in a number of areas between now and then presents an invigorating and exciting challenge. ”

Barry Scollo, TeamBath’s director of tennis, said: “This is going to have a massive impact on our coaching at the University of Bath.

“Brian’s name conjures up respect – you really have to have respect him for everything he has achieved as a player and a coach.

“Many of Brian’s skills lie in the development of talent, which will be invaluable. He has a huge amount of experience working with athletes under-18 and under-21.

“My whole team are looking forward to working with him. I hope he will mentor me in my role as well.”

Ashton takes up his role at a time when British swimming returns in strength to Bath with a new high-performance training centre backed by coaches from the national governing body.

There are also squads based at the University of Bath’s Sports Training Village in the Olympic and/or Paralympic sports of modern pentathlon, judo, bob-skeleton, bobsleigh, badminton, hockey, rowing, triathlon, volleyball and athletics.  Ashton will be available to provide support to these squads in the critical run-up to the home-based Olympic Games of 2012, the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games and Olympic Winter Games of Vancouver also in 2010.  Equally, he will have a role to play in sports like netball and football in which Team Bath plays competitively in external leagues.

Joined Team Bath 1997

Matt oversees the University of Bath Sport Department’s operations. He works closely with our Director of Sport Ged Roddy on strategic planning and development of sport at the university supports development of High Performance Centres in conjunction with national governing bodies and manages the Sports Department and coaches on a day to day basis.

Matt liaises with human resources and administration departments to co-ordinate recruitment, appraisals, staff training, organisational structure, development and implementation of key performance indicators, and to ensure efficient and supportive office systems are in place.

He sits on various university committees and is also involved in budget setting for the department. Matt works very closely with the university’s Sports Association regarding student sport, coaching and recreational programmes.