Team Bath Athletics Club’s Tom Gale capped an excellent indoor season by winning his first British high jump title at the SPAR British Athletics Indoor Championships in Glasgow. Gale, who is coached by Denis Doyle at the University of Bath Sports Training Village, cleared 2.27m to take gold at the end of a winter campaign that saw him achieve the Olympic qualifying standard of 2.33m. “I’m feeling really good and I’ve put myself in the...
There were 26 medals won across five different sports, nine of them gold, as 135 University of Bath student-athletes proudly wore the Blue & Gold during three excellent days of competition at the 2020 BUCS [British Universities & Colleges Sport] Nationals in Sheffield. Swimmer Luke Turley and judoka George Kroussaniotakis and Lewis Widdicombe all claimed two titles apiece, and karate’s Sophie Atkinson, a silver medallist in last year’s women’s novice kata, went one better this...
Team Bath Athletics Club’s Tom Gale set the Tokyo 2020 Olympic qualifying standard as he continued his excellent indoor form with victory at the Hustopece Skeskakani event in the Czech Republic. Gale’s clearance of 2.33m was both a personal best and saw him join Darryl Sullivan of the United States as the world lead for the men’s high jump so far this year. It was also a third victory in as many indoor competitions for...
Paul Blake, who won Paralympic gold and a host of world titles while training at the University of Bath, has announced his retirement from athletics after an outstanding career. Blake was part of Rob Ellchuk’s training group at the University from 2009 and quickly established himself as one of Britain’s most talented athletes, winning his first world title in Christchurch, New Zealand in 2011 when he claimed T36 400m gold. He went on to conquer...
There are exactly six months to go until the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games get under way and aspiring Olympians across a wide range of sports have been hard at work during a typically busy training day at the University of Bath. The Olympic-sized London 2012 Legacy Pool at the Sports Training Village has been a real hub of activity, with the British Swimming National Centre squad – featuring Rio 2016 silver-medallist James Guy and fellow...
Malcolm Arnold, who coached athletes to Olympic, World and Commonwealth titles during a 20-year career at the University of Bath, has been honoured at the IOC [International Olympic Committee] Coaches Lifetime Achievement Awards in Lausanne, Switzerland. The legendary track and field coach received the award from 1988 Olympic pole vault champion Sergey Bubka, now Chair of the IOC Athletes’ Entourage Commission, during a ceremony at The Olympics Museum. The IOC Coaches Lifetime Achievement Awards is an...
It’s the end of another outstanding year of sport at the University of Bath which saw world-class tennis and modern pentathlon come to the Sports Training Village (STV) while athletes and students excelled on the world stage. The £35million STV successfully hosted two major international sporting events in 2019, including the first Fed Cup tennis tie to be staged in Great Britain for 26 years. The indoor courts were transformed into a showcase arena as...
Aspiring Olympians, both Summer and Winter, and reigning European and British Champions are among the latest intake of scholars to receive support from the University of Bath on both their sporting and academic journeys. The talented 2019-20 group of 15 student-athletes, who compete across 13 different sports, join 26 existing scholars who each receive a cash award that runs over the period of their course and helps them meet the demands of training, competing and...
University of Bath-based Paul Blake stormed to the fourth World Para-Athletics Championships gold medal of his career in Dubai on Thursday – and hailed it as his best yet. Blake, coached by Rob Ellchuk, controlled his T36 800m final from start to finish as he finished eight seconds clear of the field in a season’s best time of 2:07.44 to claim Great Britain’s first gold on the opening day of the 2019 championships. It was...
Emily Diamond narrowly missed out on another major relay medal on a dramatic final evening of the 2019 IAAF World Athletics Championships in Doha. Diamond, who does some of her training at the University of Bath, and team-mates Zoey Clark, Jodie Williams and Laviai Nielsen finished fourth in the women’s 4x400m relay final in a season’s best time of 3:23.02. A disqualification to the Jamaican team later saw GB & NI upgraded to bronze but...
