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...
Athletes, students, coaches and graduates at the University of Bath are excitedly counting down to Rio 2016, with just one year to go until the Olympic Games get under way. Olympic, World, Commonwealth and European medallists are among the many athletes from a wide range of sports aspiring to be Brazil-bound in 12 months’ time. Bringing home just how close the Games are is the fact that the University of Bath is staging a Rio...
Commonwealth swimming champion Siobhan-Marie O’Connor will act as official starter for the annual Olympic Day Run when it takes places at the University of Bath on Saturday. Being staged over a 5km course at the Sports Training Village or 3km for under-16s, the run will start at 2pm and is the centerpiece of the Team Bath Community Activity Day. Hundreds of people have taken part over the past few years in the run, an international...
Wheelchair fencer Piers Gilliver has seen his new training programme at the University of Bath pay immediate dividends as he won another epee gold medal at the World Cup in Pisa, Italy. It was a fourth success in five tournaments for the 20-year-old, who is ranked number one in the world in the qualifying standings for the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games. “I am really thrilled – there is nothing like the feeling of winning gold,”...
Paralympic swimming champion Ellie Simmonds has given the University of Bath’s newly-refurbished London 2012 Legacy Pool the thumbs up, describing it as “incredible”. The four-time gold-medallist, who has an honorary degree from the University, visited the Sports Training Village on Friday to promote the Sainsbury’s School Games. The West of England regional finals – organised by the West of England Sport Trust (Wesport) – will once again take place at the University of Bath, with...
Double Olympian Paula Walker has announced her retirement from bobsleigh. The 29-year-old, who trained at the University of Bath, piloted Britain to 11th place at the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver and 12th at Sochi 2014. She gave birth to daughter Poppy later that year and is set to marry fellow British Bobsleigh pilot John Jackson, so Walker is retiring to focus on her family. “It's been a very tough decision to leave the...
The STV's newly installed 50m Legacy pool has been described as "fantastic" and "incredible" by some of its first users. Pentathlon GB athletes - based at the STV - were the very first swimmers to use the new Sport England-funded facilities - the redevelopment of which recent World Cup winner Jamie Cooke said "looks amazing". He said: “They have done a fantastic job with the refurbishment; it looks amazing and it was great to dive...
Two of the finest athletes the City of Bath has produced today (Monday) became the first inductees to the University of Bath’s new Hall of Fame for Sport. Jason Gardener and Ben Rushgrove were inducted to the Hall of Fame by Professor Kevin Edge, Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the University of Bath. The Hall of Fame is located in the entrance of the Sports Training Village, a world-leading sports facility that has been a training base...
University of Bath graduate Kelly Gallagher made a piece of history today (Monday) by winning Britain’s first gold medal at a Paralympic Winter Games. Gallagher, who graduated from the University with a Mathematics degree in 2006, took gold in the visually impaired Alpine Skiing Super G event at the Sochi Games with guide Charlotte Evans. Their medals were also Britain’s first gold medals on the snow at either the Paralympic or Olympic Winter Games. Gallagher,...
