Team Bath Netball are looking to the future with great excitement after their status as the Vitality Superleague franchise for the South West of England was confirmed by England Netball for another four years. The decision follows a rigorous tender process by England Netball, which saw Team Bath overcome strong competition from other bidders. University of Bath Director of Sport Stephen Baddeley led a presentation to England Netball which reflected not only pride in Team...
Hurdlers Andrew Pozzi and Eilidh Doyle were among the University of Bath-based athletes who booked their place at the Rio 2016 Olympic Trials with medal-winning performances at the British Championships in Birmingham. Emily Diamond and Jazmin Sawyers, who also train at the Sports Training Village (STV), secured their coveted Team GB spots by winning gold, while University of Bath graduates Lawrence Clarke and Danny Talbot claimed the top-two places they needed for qualification. All six have also been named...
Talented teenage Team Bath MCTA Tennis players Megan Davies and Eden Richardson have boosted their chances of a Junior Wimbledon wildcard entry by beating players in the world’s top 50 over the weekend. Both are in action at the Nike Junior International in Roehampton, where Davies recorded an excellent 6-2 7-5 victory over Paraguay’s Lara Escauriza in the first round. She faces Iga Swiatek of Poland in the last 32. Richardson, fresh from her outstanding...
Badminton player Heather Olver and rower Vicky Thornley have become the latest athletes with University of Bath connections to be selected by Team GB for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. Olver (pictured left), who studied Coach Education and Sports Development at the University, will continue her successful women’s doubles partnership with Lauren Smith in Rio after being named in an eight-strong badminton squad. A three-time silver-medallist at the Commonwealth Games, Olver was coached by Peter...
Most of us mere mortals find the prospect of a single half-marathon a relatively daunting experience. The same can't be said of Team Bath Strength and Conditioning Coach Bob Smith who, on Sunday, ran his 26th such distance in as many weeks. In January, Bob ran the first of 52 half-marathons planned for 2016 in aid of the Wallace & Gromit Grand Appeal at Bristol Children’s Hospital who provided care for his daughter Autumn when she was taken...
University of Bath-based athlete Paul Blake will go in search of gold in Brazil after being named in an initial 13-strong track and field squad by ParalympicsGB. Blake - who competes in the T36 400m and T36 800m Paralympic events - is a triple World Champion and recently claimed victory in the T36 400m at the XI International Meeting Kern Pharma Grand Prix in Sauleda in May. The 26-year old, trained by Rob Ellchuk at the Sports Training...
Two of the most iconic figures of British Athletics were today welcomed into the University of Bath Hall of Fame for Sport. Renowned coach Malcolm Arnold OBE and twice world champion hurdler Colin Jackson CBE were formally inducted by University Vice Chancellor Professor Dame Glynis Breakwell in front of a crowd which included current athletics stars based at the Sports Training Village. "In our minds, he is the most successful British athletics coach of all time," said the Vice...
With 50 days to go until Rio 2016, Team Bath judoka Ben Fletcher today became the ninth University of Bath-based athlete to be officially selected by Team GB for this summer’s Olympic Games. The 24-year-old, who is coached by Juergen Klinger at the Sports Training Village, will compete in the men’s -100kg weight category after being one of seven Brits to successfully qualify for the Games. After a gruelling two-year qualification period that took him...
Team Bath Buccaneers hope that a groundbreaking twinning process with Dutch Premier League club Hurley will lead to more talented young players combining hockey and study at the University of Bath. Three Buccaneers executive members flew out to Amsterdam recently to establish the link, the first of its kind between two European clubs. And Chair Nick Kendall, who was joined on the trip by Director of Hockey Heber Ackland and men’s assistant coach Jon Williams,...
Team Bath MCTA Tennis player Anna Smith and her women’s doubles partner Jocelyn Rae have been handed wildcards for Wimbledon 2016. The Championships, taking place from June 27 to July 10, will mark a third Grand Slam appearance of the year for Smith and Rae, who are Britain’s doubles partnership in the Federation Cup. They reached the last 16 at the Australian Open in January and progressed to the last 32 at the French Open...