Loughborough College students and alumni have delivered an inspirational performance at the 2018 Commonwealth Games over eleven days of world class competition on the Gold Coast and will be bringing home 30 medals, including 15 gold.
Fifty athletes from the College competed across 13 sports including para events and claimed an outstanding 15 gold, four silver and ten bronze medals.
Loughborough College was represented in the England, Wales, Scotland and Isle of Man teams in Australia and as a ‘nation’ would rank eighth in the final medal table, ahead of Nigeria, population 186 million, Jamaica and Kenya.
Team England have finished second to hosts Australia in the final medal table with Wales in seventh place ahead of Scotland in eighth and Northern Ireland in 20th.
Loughborough College degree student Sarah Vasey struck gold on her Commonwealth Games debut, beating Games record holder Alia Atkinson to win the women’s 50m breaststroke on day two.
There was a record-breaking gold medal for Loughborough College sport student Sophie Hahn MBE in the T38 100m with the 21 year old, who already held the Paralympic, World and European titles, completing a remarkable clean sweep of all four major titles on day eight.
Fellow Loughborough College sport student Ross Wilson took gold in the TT 6-10 table tennis men’s singles on day ten when he triumphed over England teammate Kim Daybell in the final.
Sophie Thornhill made it a gold medal double with the Team England cyclist and Loughborough College alumna setting a new record to win the B&VI Sprint with pilot Helen Scott on day one and then breaking her own world record for a second win, in the women’s B&VI 1000m time trial, on day three.
Siobhan Marie O’Connor took gold in the 200m individual medley on day four with world para-champion and fellow former student Olivia Breen claiming gold in the women’s T38 long jump for Wales on the same day, setting a new Commonwealth record that was also a personal best.
Dan Goodfellow won diving gold with Tom Daley in the synchronized 10m platform on day nine and fellow former students Richard Kilty and Harry Aikines-Aryeetey helped England triumph in the 4x100m relay on day ten, while England netball secured the greatest result ever in their history on the final day of competition to win their first Commonwealth gold following victory over Australia, with the squad featuring former students Beth Cobden, Helen Housby, Jodie Gibson, Kadeen Corbin and Natalie Haythornthwaite.
Zoe Smith, who studies A-levels at Loughborough College, secured silver after a stellar display in the women’s 63kg weightlifting on the third day of competition with College degree student Luke Greenbank claiming silver as part of the men’s 100m medley relay team on day six.
Molly Renshaw also scooped silver in the women’s 200m breaststroke, on day three, and fellow former student Kyle Langford came from sixth with 100m to go to miss out on victory by a fraction of a second and take silver and a PB in the men’s 800m final.
There were bronze medals for Siobhan-Marie O’Connor as part of the 4x100m freestyle relay team on day one and for the former Loughborough College student with the women’s 4x200m freestyle quartet on day three.
Bronze for England in the badminton mixed team event saw Loughborough College graduate Chloe Birch win her first Commonwealth medal and on day eight former student Olivia Breen took bronze for Wales in the T38 100m, her second medal of the competition.
Day nine delivered bronze for fellow former student Niamh Emerson in the women’s Heptahlon and on day ten England had a double triumph in their hockey bronze medal matches with the women, whose squad included alumna Suzy Petty, beating India 6-0 and the men, including alumni Henry Weir and Chris Griffiths, also securing a win against India with a final score of 2-1.
There was another double bronze for England on the final day, this time in the rugby sevens, when the women beat Canada 24-19, with Loughborough College degree student Megan Jones and alumna Claire Allan amongst the Commonwealths squad and the men triumphing over South Africa 21-14, with their Games squad including Alex Davis.
There was even a marriage proposal on day four when, after the England women’s basketball team had beaten Mozambique and the men – including Loughborough College graduate Jamell Anderson - had triumphed over Cameroon at the Commonwealth Games, Jamell Anderson got down on one knee on court to ask fellow England basketball player Georgia Jones to marry him – and she said, Yes.
Today’s Commonwealth Games closing ceremony sees the start of the countdown to Team England’s home Games in Birmingham in 2022.