Rising sport stars from Loughborough College have been recognised for their future Olympic, Paralympic and Commonwealth Games prospects with no fewer than nine athletes set to receive support from the Leicester-Shire and Rutland Sport Go Gold funding programme.
A presentation evening at County Hall in Leicester was attended by Loughborough College student and reigning World, Commonwealth, European and Paralympic champion athlete Sophie Hahn MBE, who was among the College’s 14 Olympic and Paralympic medal winners in Rio and helped College athletes bring home 30 medals, including 15 gold, from last year’s Commonwealth Games.
Loughborough College students set to receive grants are World Junior Long Jump Champion Karim Chan, cyclist April Tacey and swimmer Lucy Sharp, together with former student and athlete Amy Griffiths - named as a Go Gold ambassador - and swimmer Megan Morrison, who is a College Sports Personality of the Year winner.
Lucy also received The Chairman Trophy Award for the most improved athlete after reaching every final this year bar one and securing five personal bests: “To even be nominated for the Award was a great honour, so to then go on to receive the award was unexpected but I was really grateful and proud. I hope I can continue to work hard and develop further to be the best athlete I can be and live up to this recognition of the improvements I have made in my swimming.”
Karim, April, Lucy, Amy and Megan are joined by swimmers Candice Hall and Emily Crane and basketball player Kyle Jiminez, who are studying for their BSc (Hons) in Sports Science and Management with Loughborough College and fellow College degree student and swimmer Georgia Amison, who is studying for her BSc (Hons) in Applied Sports Science.
Karim and April are both part of the Loughborough College Talent Academy programme, which specialises in offering young athletes expert support in balancing the dual demands of their education and performance sport – and to excel in both.
Steve Wilkinson, who heads the programme at the College, said: “The College and Sport department are obviously delighted that current and former students have been recognised by the Go Gold funding programme. It shows how we not only support talent development through the16-19 age group but also in transition to degree study either here at the College or further afield. As the reputation of our Talent Academy increases, we hope to see more and more athletes progressing to these levels and being supported and recognised by funding providers and Leicester-Shire and Rutland Sport.”
Sarah Larnder, Deputy Head of Higher Education at Loughborough College, added: “We have a large number of talented athletes on degree courses with us and we are extremely proud of the fantastic things they achieve both within their sport and their academic studies. Go Gold is an excellent programme which has provided financial assistance to a number of our student athletes from the local area, supporting them towards excelling in their sport and we are very excited to see what happens next as they build on their outstanding achievements.”
The aim of Go Gold funding is to provide athletes competing at regional, national or international level in an Olympic, Paralympic or Commonwealth discipline with valuable financial support towards kit, equipment, travel and accommodation for competition and tournaments.
Pictured: Nine athletes from Loughborough College have been recognised with Go Gold funding for 2019/20