The Rio 2016 Paralympic Games start today and there are high hopes of medal success among the University of Bath-based athletes past and present competing for ParalympicsGB over the next 11 days. Polly Maton, a 16-year-old athlete coached at the Sports Training Village by Colin Baross, is in action when competition gets fully under way on Thursday and will contest the T47 long jump final at 10.11pm BST. She returns to the Olympic Stadium on...
Britain’s wheelchair fencers will fly out to the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games today in peak condition after attending a final preparation camp at the University of Bath. Piers Gilliver and Dimitri Coutya, ranked number one and two in the world in their respective disciplines, were joined by last-minute call-up Gemma Collis for a five-day get-together at the Sports Training Village. As well as train in the fencing salle, the Paralympics GB trio also received advice...
University of Bath-based long jumper Jazmin Sawyers beat a field including Olympic and World Champion Tianna Bartoletta to claim victory at the ISTAF Berlin meeting in Germany on Saturday. Sawyers, who had finished eighth at the Zurich Diamond League two days earlier, cleared 6.62m to take top spot. Next up for the Rio 2016 Olympian, coached by Alan Lerwell, is the IAAF World Challenge event in Zagreb, Croatia, on Tuesday. Olympic bronze-medallist Eilidh Doyle, who...
Two Malaysian powerlifters have been stepping up their preparations for the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games by training at the University of Bath. Jong Yee Khie, a bronze-medallist at the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games, and Shahmil Md Saad, who also competed in Scotland, spent two weeks using the world-class facilities at the Sports Training Village (STV). As well as weight training in the Team Bath Gym, Khie and Saad – who have both earned qualification for...
Put yourself in the shoes of an athlete heading to a major Games: you're weeks away from potentially the biggest competition of your life, you're up against the most successful rivals in the world and all you want to do is train as hard as you can in order to give your event the best shot possible. There's only one problem: training harder than ever severely runs the risk of injury. The specialists in charge...
University of Bath-based athletes played their part in helping Great Britain achieve one of the most remarkable Olympic results in its history according to Team Bath Director of Sport Stephen Baddeley. Team GB ended the Games second in the medal table with 67 total medals including 27 golds - one more than third-placed China. Athletes who base their training at the University's Sports Training Village contributed six medals towards the haul - four silvers and two bronze. Swimmers Siobhan-Marie...
University of Bath-based athletes Emily Diamond and Eilidh Doyle helped Team GB make history at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games as they won bronze in the women’s 4x400m relay. It was Britain’s 66th medal of the Olympics, meaning they surpassed their total from London 2012 and became the first nation to win more medals four years after hosting the Games. It also means that six medals have been won by athletes based at the Sports...
There was to be no medal for University of Bath-based modern penathletes on this occasion but there were still plenty of positives to take from the Rio 2016 Olympic Games for Pentathlon GB. Kate French and Samantha Murray both overcame difficult starts to record top-ten finishes in the women’s event. Mathematics student Joe Choong then produced the performance of his career so far to start the combined event of the men’s competition in silver-medal position....
University of Bath-based athlete Eilidh Doyle missed out on a medal in the 400m hurdles final but will have a second shot at a Rio 2016 Olympic Games podium place in the 4x400m relay over the weekend. Doyle, coached by Malcolm Arnold at the Sports Training Village, was unable to get into contention from the inside lane of the hurdles final overnight and had to settle for eighth place in 54.61. “It’s a really strange...
University of Bath student Joe Choong enjoyed a strong start to his Olympic debut as the fencing ranking rounds got the Rio 2016 modern pentathlon competitions under way on Thursday. Choong, who studies Mathematics and is supported by an Ivor Powell Sports Scholarship, secured 22 victories from his 35 bouts in the Deodoro Youth Arena. That was the fourth-highest number of hits but an unfortunate late red card cost him a ten-point penalty and dropped...
