Current and aspiring Olympians, history-making artistic swimmer and internationals join ranks of University of Bath Sporting Scholars
A Paris 2024 pentathlete, history-making artistic swimmer and aspiring Olympians in athletics, hockey, sailing and swimming are among an impressive 11 University of Bath student-athletes to be awarded sporting scholarships for the 2024-25 academic year.
Charlie Brown, Ranjuo Tomblin, Justin Davies, Patrick McElhinney, Oscar Cawthorne, Joshua Gammon, Dylan Registe and Matt Ward will all benefit from a cash award to help them meet the demands of training, competing and studying at an elite level.
Netballer Alanna Pullen and rugby players Aiden Ainsworth-Cave and Jess Doyle, all of whom have represented England at age-group level, complete an outstanding cohort of scholars, all supported by alumni, friends and partners of the University who are passionate about giving talented young people the opportunity to benefit from Bath’s sporting and academic environment.
Previous scholars include four Paris 2024 Olympic medallists – gold-medallist Tom Dean (swimming), Prisca Awiti-Alcaraz (judo), Kate Shortman (artistic swimming) and Becky Wilde (rowing) – and hoping to emulate the success of training partner and fellow engineering student Dean is Matt Ward who, like the triple Olympic Champion, will be supported by a Bill Whiteley Scholarship.
Ward joined David McNulty’s world-renowned Aquatics GB Bath Performance Centre training group in September 2023 and is now combining his burgeoning swimming career with studying Integrated Mechanical and Electrical Engineering. The multi-talented swimmer, who became Team Scotland’s most decorated athlete at a single Commonwealth Youth Games in 2023 with three gold in a seven-medal haul, made his senior British international debut at June’s European Championships.
Also making his GB bow in Belgrade was Sports Performance student Joshua Gammon, who is the recipient of an Alumni Fund Scholarship. Gammon has won 200m butterfly gold at the past two Aquatics GB Championships, as well as 100m silver at this year’s Olympic Trials, and will compete in the first major event of the LA 2028 Olympic cycle, this month’s World Aquatics Short Course Championships in Budapest.
A third international swimmer receiving scholarship support is Ireland’s Dylan Registe, the reigning national 50m butterfly champion who made his senior debut at the 2023 European Short Course Championships.
A Sports Performance student, Registe is supported by a Hudson Powell Scholarship as is Northampton Saints Academy and England U18 rugby player Aiden Ainsworth-Cave. A former Bedford School 1st XV captain, the Economics fresher – a second-row forward – has helped the University make a strong start to the 2024-25 BUCS Super Rugby season.
The newly-renamed Hudson Powell Sports Scholarship Fund recognises the huge contribution of two late University of Bath sporting giants, legendary football coach Ivor Powell and Dr Tom Hudson, the trailblazing Director of Sport who established the UK’s first university sporting scholarships at Bath in 1976.
Modern pentathlete Charlie Brown will benefit from a Santander Scholarship as he builds on his Olympic debut at Paris 2024. The Sports Management and Coaching student, who trains at the University with Pentathlon GB, has already won World and European medals, and is targeting regular podium placings during the LA 2028 cycle.
Another athlete with Olympic aspirations is sailor Oscar Cawthorne, who is supported by a Bill Whiteley Scholarship. The Mathematics fresher represented Great Britain at the 2023 Youth Sailing World Championships in Brazil, placing sixth in the 420 male/mixed class with Henry Heathcote.
Trendell Scholar Ranjuo Tomblin is the latest artistic swimmer to combine their sport with studying at the University of Bath and, like Shortman, he is no stranger to making history after becoming the first-ever male to compete for Team GB in the sport. The Sports Performance student also won Britain’s first European Championships gold for 39 years in June, one of four medals he brought home from Belgrade.
Natural Sciences first-year student Jess Doyle is the recipient of a Bill Burden Scholarship. The full-back represented England Rugby in the U18 Women’s Six Nations 2024 and also played for the U20s in this summer’s Transatlantic Quad Series against the United States and Canada.
Completing the new intake of scholars are three more student-athletes supported by the Alumni Fund. Biomedical Sciences student Justin Davies won World University Cross Country Championships silver for GB in 2022 and is making great strides as a middle-distance runner on the track, bagging British Indoor Championships 800m bronze earlier this year before smashing his personal best while winning the British Milers Club Gold Standard Race in August.
Roses Academy player Alanna Pullen, who helped England win U21 Netball Europe gold in 2023, has been named in the Team Bath Netball squad for the inaugural NXT Gen League season. The Sports Performance student has also helped the University make an unbeaten start to their 2024-25 BUCS Premier South campaign.
Biology student Patrick McElhinney, who plays his club hockey for Team Bath Buccaneers in Division 1 South, is part of Hockey Ireland’s National Performance Pathway and an U21 international.
Visit teambath.com/scholarships to find out more about sports scholarships at the University of Bath. For more information about providing a sports scholarship or supporting student-athletes visit www.bath.ac.uk/campaigns/supporting-elite-athletes.
