Wheelchair fencer Susie Seddon-Cowell is first winner of new Rengen Athlete of the Month award for University of Bath student-athletes
Wheelchair fencing international Susie Seddon-Cowell has been named as the first winner of a new Rengen Athlete of the Month award for high-performing student-athletes on the Team Bath Breakthrough Programme.
Seddon-Cowell, who combines her sport with a PhD Research Programme in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Bath, recently achieved the best result of her international career to date when she placed eighth in the women’s Category A sabre at the Pisa World Cup in Italy.
That performance, allied with the dedication shown to her self-funded training and competition, impressed the judging panel who picked her from a strong shortlist as the standout athlete for January 2025.
Both the award and the Student Performance Sport Breakthrough Programme – which provides more than 160 student-athletes across 25 different sports with bespoke support designed to help them maximise their academic and sporting potential – are supported by Team Bath partners Rengen.
Performance Sport Officer Sarah Collin, who was on the judging panel with Head of Rugby Aaron James and Performance Services Manager Ricky Massiah, said: “Susie is a well-deserving winner of our first Athlete of the Month award. We want this accolade to not only celebrate success but recognise dedication, perseverance and all the attributes required to excel as both a student and athlete. Susie’s sporting journey so far is a shining example of those qualities.”
Seddon-Cowell, who was presented with a certificate and £50 voucher by Director of Sport Stephen Baddeley, first began competing in wheelchair fencing in 2022 after 12 years of doing standing fencing as a hobby.
Due to a lack of equipment, storage space and training provision when she first started, she spent 10 months building a fencing frame at Edinburgh Forge with the help of a coach from Dunedin Fencing Club and then negotiated with four different stakeholders to have access to a training space.
That commitment was quickly rewarded in 2023 when Seddon-Cowell became the first person to win the British, Welsh and Scottish Opens in the same year, and she went on to become double British Open champion in sabre and epee the following year.
Entirely self-funded through her savings, charity grants and PhD stipend, Seddon-Cowell – who has competed internationally for the past three years – was the only athlete not on the UK Sport-funded World Class Programme to be selected for the 2023 World Championships. She also competed at the 2024 European Championships in Paris.
Away from her sport, Seddon-Cowell – who has an academic background in microbiology, palaeontology and astrobiology – has been selected as an analogue astronaut on Space Health Research’s Meili II analogue mission which aims to simulate planetary exploration on a remote Scottish island. She will become the first para-analogue astronaut when the mission takes place in April.
Student-athletes on this year’s programme participate in such diverse sports as air pistol shooting, American Football, artistic swimming, athletics, badminton, cricket, cycling, fencing, football, futsal, hockey, judo, karting, lacrosse, modern pentathlon, motorsport, netball, Olympic weightlifting, rowing, rugby (union and league), sailing, shooting, swimming, tennis, triathlon, wheelchair fencing and wheelchair tennis.
Rengen, whose headquarters are based in Argyle Street in Bath city centre, has extensive experience in the development of boutique purpose-built student accommodation, residential accommodation and commercial units. Find out more by visiting rengendevelopments.com and rengenlettings.com.
Pictured top: Rengen Athlete of the Month Susie Seddon-Cowell (centre) with University of Bath Director of Sport Stephen Baddeley (left) and Performance Sport Officer Sarah Collin.
