Medals coup for uni stars
Stirling club’s triumphs in contests
Stirling University’s reputation as one of the UK’s leading high-performance swimming centres has been reinforced with athletes securing medals at international and national competitions.
Leading the way at the World Swimming Championships in Budapest was double Olympicmedallist Duncan Scott, who was part of the men’s 4x200m freestyle relay team that retained its world title in style and landing a silver in the men’s 4x100m medley relay alongside Stirling teammate Ross Murdoch, who competed in the heats.
Individually, Scott fell agonisingly short, by four hundredths of a second, of a bronze medal in the 200m freestyle before finishing fifth in the 100m event. Murdoch was also fourth in the 200m breaststroke after placing eighth in the 100m final.
Meanwhile, fellow Stirling student Kathleen Dawson finished a respectable eighth in the 100m backstroke and seventh in the women’s 4x100m medley relay at her first ever World Championships.
In Samsun, Turkey, third-year Sport and Exercise Science student Danielle Joyce stole the show at the Deaflympics with Team GB, as she won gold medals in the 50m and 100m freestyle events along with bronzes in the 50m backstroke and the 4x100m mixed freestyle relay.
Danielle said: “It’s been an amazing journey and I’m still buzzing about the whole thing. To have worked so hard to get there, I’m so happy to see the hours of training pay-off and still can’t quite believe I’ve come away with as many medals.”
Closer to home, seven swimmers brought back medals from the British Summer Championships at Ponds Forge, Sheffield. Olympian Craig Benson won gold in both the 50m and 100m breaststroke plus a silver in the 200m event and Jamie Graham came second in the 50m.
There wer also silvers for Charlie Boldison (100m backstroke), Danielle Huskisson (800m freestyle) and Lauren Mills (50m butterfly) as well as bronze for Callum Lawrie (400m individual medley) and Calum Bain (50m butterfly).
University director of sport Cathy Gallagher said: “The coaches and athletes are a credit to the university and their success is testament to the unrivalled talent, hard work and standards in the programme.
“This has been a great way for the students to end their academic year, although the excitement isn’t quite over as we have a number of swimmers heading to Chinese Taipei later this month for the World University Summer Games, where they will compete against the cremede-la-creme of higher education sport.”