More University of Bath sporting scholars heading to Paris 2024 Olympic Games as judoka and hurdler secure their selections
Two more former University of Bath Sporting Scholars, Prisca Awiti-Alcaraz and Alastair Chalmers, have been selected to represent Mexico and Team GB respectively at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
It will be a second Games for judoka Awiti-Alcaraz, who competed for Mexico at the rescheduled Tokyo Olympics in 2021. She earned automatic qualification for Paris by ranking in the world’s top 20 in the women’s -63kg category after an impressive two years on the international circuit which saw her win 10 medals, three of them gold, and place fifth at the 2023 World Championships in Doha.
Awiti-Alcaraz, who studied Sports Performance, trained with Team Bath Judo from 2015 until moving to Mexico full-time in 2022.
Chalmers, who also studied Sports Performance, is heading to his first Games after securing a Team GB place by winning the 400m hurdles title in dramatic circumstances at the UK Athletics Championships in Manchester.
Having been disqualified for a false start, Chalmers ran under protest and set the qualifying time with a 48.54sec victory before waiting two hours for officials to uphold his appeal and confirm his success.
He will be the second member of the Chalmers family to compete at an Olympic Games after brother Cameron, who also trained and studied at the University of Bath and raced at Tokyo 2020.
The latest selections mean that 11 student-athletes supported by sporting scholarships at the University of Bath have been selected for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
Leah Crisp (swimming, Santander Scholarship) and Kate Shortman (artistic swimming, Bill Whiteley Scholarship) are current scholars, while previous beneficiaries include Tokyo gold-medallists Joe Choong (modern pentathlon, Ivor Powell Scholarship), Anna Hopkin (swimming, Thompson Education Trust Scholarship) and Tom Dean (swimming, Bill Whiteley Scholarship). Click here to see a full list of selected athletes.
Bath was the first University in the UK to offer sporting scholarships in 1976 and applications are now open from current and prospective student-athletes for the 2024-25 academic year. Visit teambath.com/scholarships to find out more.
Picture of Alastair Chalmers – credit British Athletics
