News

Winning Students Update Spring 2018

The Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games was the primary focus for a lot of our athletes this Spring, with the group contributing a host of strong performances for their respective countries, but there was plenty of other action going on elsewhere for those not out in Australia.

Here is our latest round-up…

Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games

31 current Winning Students scholars represented their country across seven sports at the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games, bringing home 15 medals from the event.

Read how they got on in our Gold Coast round-up.

Badminton

Open University in Scotland scholars Julie Macpherson and Eleanor O’Donnell finished second in the women’s doubles at the Portuguese International, losing out to Chinese Taipei pairing Li Zi Qing and Teng Chun Hsun in the final.

Bobby Laing (West Lothian College) won bronze in the men’s doubles at the Spanish International Para-Badminton Tournament in Alcudia, Spain.

Canoeing

Edinburgh Napier University scholar, Ben Gallacher, won the junior K1 200m and 500m events at the British Canoeing International selection event in Nottingham and will now represent GB at the Junior European championships in Auronzo, Italy and Piestany International regatta in Slovakia.

Curling

Team Mouat, including scholars Bruce Mouat (Edinburgh Napier) and Bobby Lammie (University of Stirling) won the World Play-Off against Team Smith. Then went on to represent Scotland at World Championships in Las Vegas where they won a fantastic bronze after topping qualifying before losing to Canada in the semi-finals.

Golf

University of Stirling scholars, Hazel MacGarvie and Laird Shepherd, won the men’s and women’s  titles at both the BUCS West of Scotland Trophy and Scottish Student Championships. Shepherd then went on to win the BUCS Tour Finals event, finishing third in the overall Tour Order of Merit, whilst MacGarvie won the women’s overall Order of Merit in her first year.

Stirling teammates, Gemma Batty and Chloe Goadby, also had positive springs, with both claiming top-ten finishes at the Helen Holm Championship at Troon, as well as being selected to represent Scotland in a number of international matches.

Goadby also enjoyed at top-ten finish at Nick Faldo’s new junior event, the Major Champions Invitational in Florida, and third place at the Welsh Women’s Strokeplay.

Hockey

Six hockey scholars represented the Winning Students programme out on the Gold Coast, with the Scottish women’s team finishing seventh and the men’s coming sixth.

Having reached the Scottish Cup Final with Grove Menzieshill and been named the Abertay University’s most valuable player, scholar Katie Stott received her first senior international call-up.

Judo 

Rachel Tytler (University of Stirling) followed up a fifth place finish at the Swiss Open with an excellent performance to take gold at the Northern Irish Open.

Orienteering

University of Edinburgh athletes, Lucy Haines, Alex Carcas, Jonathan Crickmore and Alexander Chepelin won silver and gold in their respective women’s and men’s team events at the JK Relays in the West Midlands.

Chepelin finished third overall inthe individual category and has since been selected for his first major senior championships, the European Orienteering Championships in Lugano on the Switzerland/Italian border.

Meanwhile, Carcas and fellow Edinburgh scholars, Matthew Fellbaum and Laura King, have been selected to represent Great Britain at the 2018 Junior World Orienteering Championships in Hungary.

Rowing

James Temple (University of Edinburgh) placed fifth in the lightweight singles at the GB trials and finished second fastest U23.

Swimming

There were a total of 13 medals in the pool for Winning Students scholars at the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games with Duncan Scott (University of Stirling) claiming six, while Heriot-Watt University’s David Cumberlidge won two silvers and Kathryn Greenslade, Kieran McGuckin, Jack Thorpe (all University of Edinburgh), Craig McLean and Scott McLay (both University of Stirling) all came home with relay bronzes. Full details can be found in our Gold Coast round-up story.

Tennis

University of Stirling scholar, Scott Duncan, reached the quarter-finals of men’s doubles at the Glasgow ATP Challenger event which helped him reach a career high doubles world ranking.

Triathlon

Cameron Main (University of Stirling) finished sixth at the European Junior Triathlon Cup in Quarteira, Portugal.

Main then joined fellow Stirling scholars, Fergus Roberts and George Goodwin to win team silver at the BUCS Sprint event.

Individual Scholars

Laura Muir won gold in the 1500m and 3000m events at the European Indoor Athletics Championships in Belgrade, breaking the British 1500m record in the process.

Karate scholar, Jordan Szafranek (Edinburgh Napier University), won his third consecutive Scottish Universities title.

Gillies Munro (University of Edinburgh) was third at the BUCS National Yachting Championships.

As well as competing at his first ever Commonwealth Games, April saw Robert Gordon University scholar, Colin Dalgelish win both the men’s and mixed doubles at the Scottish Table Tennis Championships.