Loughborough students, Meghan Beesley, Emily Diamond, Daniel Sleath, Keiran Murphy, Nick Jupp and Charlotte Best were all GB medal winners at the 26th Universiade (also known as the World University Games) in Shenzhen, China this month.
In total, Team GB won five medals at the games, two of which were gold, to put them in a respectable, though slightly disappointing, 29th place in the medal table, ahead of the likes of Canada and the Netherlands. Hosts China were top of the medal table with 75 golds ahead of Russia and South Korea in second and third respectively.
Loughborough’s Daniel Sleath, Keiran Murphy and Nick Jupp were all part of the GB football side which won silver. All three students started in the final which GB lost 2-0 against a strong Japanese side which included some full internationals.
In athletics, Beesley, Diamond and Best were all part of the Women’s 4x400m relay who achieved a bronze medal with a time of 3 minutes 33.09 seconds. Beesley, who studies Maths and Sport Science at Loughborough, told BUCS, “It’s fantastic, we’re the first team on the track to get a medal. We’re thrilled […] the third place is always up for grabs; I seem to win bronze everywhere I go now. I’m getting good at bronze.”
In her main event Beesley came 8th in the final of the 400m hurdles. Meanwhile, elsewhere on the track, Richard Davenport came 5th in the 400m hurdles final and Emily Diamond came 8th in the 200m final. Stevie Stockton came closest to a second track medal with a 4th place finish in the 5000m.
Team GB’s two gold medals came from Jess Dickons (Bath University) in the 200m butterfly and Andrew Vernon (St Mary’s University College) in the 5000m.
