University of Bath graduate Alexandra Rickham won a medal at the Para World Sailing Championships for the seventh successive year as she and Niki Birrell claimed SKUD silver in Australia. Rickham and Birrell, who won bronze medals at the London 2012 Paralympic Games, finished runners-up to defending champions Liesl Tesch and Dan Fitzgibbon of Australia despite having equipment issues during the 11 days of competition in Melbourne. “We sailed over some weed on day two...
Weightlifter Zoe Smith broke two British records as she boosted her chances of competing at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games by securing a top-ten finish at the IWF World Championships in the United States. Commonwealth champion Smith, who does some of her training at the University of Bath Sports Training Village, lifted an overall total of 221kg – the most ever by a British woman in the -63kg weight category – as she placed ninth. The...
Piers Gilliver will end 2015 ranked as the number one epee wheelchair fencer in the world after a fifth-placed finish at the IWAS World Cup in Paris. Gilliver, who trains at the University of Bath, finished 22 ranking points clear of his nearest rival, Poland’s Dariusz Pender, after a calendar year that saw him win World Cup gold in Eger, Hungary and Pisa, Italy plus the Grand Prix titles in Warsaw and Hong Kong. He...
It is exactly 300 days until the Rio 2016 Olympic Games get under way – and Team Bath’s elite judoka face a crucial competition as they bid to reach Brazil. Valuable qualification points for the Games are up for grabs at the European Judo Open, which takes place this weekend in Glasgow for men and Lisbon for women. Among those heading to Scotland is Ben Fletcher, pictured, who currently meets the qualification criteria for Rio...
University of Bath graduate Nicole Walters helped Melissa Reid pick up a gold medal and qualification points for Rio 2016 at the World Paratriathlon Championships in Chicago. Walters is the guide for visually-impaired Reid and the pair made a fantastic start to their week as they won gold in the ITU Aquathlon World Championships (swim, run). Then, in the ITU World Triathlon Grand Final (swim, bike, run), they got off to a strong start in...
A host of sportspeople with University of Bath links have been shortlisted for the 2015 Bath Chronicle Sports Awards. All three candidates in both the Professional and Disabled Sports Performer of the Year categories train or trained at the Sports Training Village. Swimmer Jay Lelliott, a Sports Performance student at the University, is in the running for the main Sports Personality of the Year prize and Team Bath Tennis is a contender for Community Club...
Piers Gilliver continued his medal-laden year by winning silver at the 2015 Wheelchair Fencing World Championships in Eger, Hungary. And it was mighty close to gold for Gilliver, who began training full-time at the University of Bath this year, as he was edged out 15-14 by China’s Gang Sun in a thrilling A Category men’s epee final. Sun took the sole automatic qualifying place available for the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games but Gilliver is well...
When Australia arrive at their Rugby World Cup training camp at the University of Bath next week, they will become the latest national team to hone their preparations for a major championships at the world-class Sports Training Village. It was the training base for the England rugby union team during Brian Ashton’s reign as head coach, which included the 2007 Rugby World Cup in France. England were defending champions at the time and went on...
A host of Olympic, Paralympic and world-class sports people gathered at the University of Bath on Wednesday to take part in the British Athletes Commission’s first Athletes Day. Up-and-coming stars across a wide range of sports – from football to fencing, swimming to sailing, dressage to diving – also attended the event which focused on dealing with sponsors, agents and the media. The day was run by Anna Watkins, the rower who famously won double...
Sir David Tanner, Britain’s rowing chief, has hailed the World Championships women’s pair gold won by University of Bath graduate Heather Stanning and Bath Minerva’s Helen Glover as “one of the best GB performances of all-time”. “That was utterly exceptional”, said Tanner of the pairs dominant race to gold, holding off New Zealand and the USA. Gold for Glover and Stanning on the world stage can sometimes be taken for granted. The Olympic, World and...
