Living Social

Tom Exeter
March 31, 2016

The Edge have teamed up with voucher website Living Social to offer you the chance to buy 10 day passes for only £15.

This is the perfect opportunity to bring a friend or family member along on your workouts, or maybe you want to use the passes as a way of using the facilities outside of your existing membership time banding.

Day passes allow anytime access to the Fitness Suite, Swimming Pool and booking onto one exercise class per visit.

To find out more about the deal and to buy a voucher, visit the Living Social website here.

Sports Colours Awards

Lucy Wood
March 30, 2016
Netball team receiveing club of the year award

Following a fantastic year of sporting success, Leeds Sport are excited to announce the ticket launch for the prestigious annual event; The Sports Colours Awards.

This is the evening where our students step out of their tracksuits and into black tie to celebrate the success of all of our Leeds Sport participants throughout the year. This includes our Leeds Gryphon athletes, sports coaches, officials and all the volunteers that make sport possible at The University of Leeds.

“There have been some fantastic achievements throughout the year which are cause for a celebration; Sports Scholar Kim Daybell has been selected for the Rio Paralympics, 3 teams picked up BUCS Trophy medals (a gold and two silvers) and there have been 2 individual gold’s and 2 silver’s at BUCS nationals. We’ve continued to dominate in all triathlon activity claiming all 3 top spots in the BUCS Biathlon. As well as having two alumni; Alistair and Jonny Brownlee pre-selected for Rio 2016, and it’s likely to be an all Leeds affair with current student Gordon Benson and alumnus Tom Bishop looking very strong for the 3rd spot.

In our Social Leagues, Sport Science claimed an impressive, if not unsurprising, double as both football and netball won their leagues in semester one. We’ve also seen the great new Uni Girls Can campaign launched and 9 students selected to represent the University in South Africa through our Gryphons Abroad programme.

This year has also seen some incredibly adverse weather conditions that have pushed our resources to the limits and it is testament to the work of both students, staff and the local community that sport has managed to keep its head above the water!”

Activities officer Piers Cottee-Jones

The event will take place on the evening of Wednesday the 27th April as part of Leeds University Union Celebrate week.

To find out who has been nominated for the awards and to purchase your tickets click here!

Sports Relief Campus Mile – Over £200 raised!

Lucy Wood
March 29, 2016

Thank you to everyone who joined us on the 18th March 2016 for our Campus Mile in aid of Sports Relief!

This year we hosted a 1 mile run around the University of Leeds campus which took place every hour on the hour from 9am until 5pm. Edge members and customers of all running abilities joined together to get involved, and raised a fantastic £230.97 for Sports Relief, which will go towards numerous good causes in both the UK and around the world.

In the last two years, Sport Relief has enabled over 189,000 children to attend school, over 734,000 children to be given life saving vaccines, 16,500 people get support for mental health issues, and has funded 23 projects to support people living with dementia. Your money really does make such a difference so thank you all once again for your support and donations!

For further information or if you have any questions, please contact the membership team on edgemembership@leeds.ac.uk or 0113 343 7406.

 

 

BUCS Biathlon success!

Lucy Wood
March 16, 2016
beau Smith running

The University of Leeds Triathlon club have had a fantastic weekend competing in the BUCS Biathlon Championships.

In the Men’s individual event, the club managed to secure the 3 top places with Beau Smith taking 1st, Richard Allen taking 2nd and Greg Chambers finishing 3rd. In the women’s individual Hannah Drewett also managed to grab a top spot coming 2nd in the event.

In the team events the success continued with the University of Leeds A and B securing 1st and 2nd place in the Men’s event respectively, and 1st and 3rd in the Women’s event respectively.

“It was great to see 25 University of Leeds athletes from Development, BUCS and Fast-Track squads all competing as one team. The University of Leeds were ranked number one in the country for triathlon last season and the athletes once again led the way. To pick up 4/6 individual medals and 4/6 team medals is a great achievement. All three squads were back in training on Monday where the hard work continues in preparation for the BUCS Sprint Triathlon Championships on 1 May.”

Coach Liam O’Neill

The above results total a massive 109 BUCS points which has contributed largely to our overall BUCS standings. Considering the team was missing 4 key members of their development squad, this shows the outstanding achievements and potential of the University of Leeds triathlon squad.

 

Women In Sport: Taking On The World

Tilly Hall
March 15, 2016
5 panel members laughing and one talking

The Uni Girls Can team have hosted two brilliant events, bringing 5 inspirational women to the University of Leeds.

Coinciding with Leeds University Unions International Women’s Week the Uni Girls Can team welcomed staff, students and the local community to join their interactive panel discussion and introductory boxing class.

The women’s only introduction to boxing session was delivered by European silver medallist, Stacey Copeland. Places were in high demand and sold out in just one hour, with 50 people on the waiting list. The session was fun, energetic and provided a basic introduction to the technical sport of boxing. Stacey is very passionate about her sport and the journey she has taken in a male dominated arena. This energy and enthusiasm contributed to making for a fantastic session enjoyed by everyone.

women in a boxing lesson smiling

Stacey then joined fellow panellists, Non Stanford- World Champion Triathlete, Alison Rose- Physiotherapist to top athletes including Jessica Ennis-Hill, Emily Freeman- 200m champion and Sarah Speers- Head Synchro Swimming Coach for Leeds, for an honest and insightful panel discussion on topics such as women’s media coverage, the school system, barriers to participation and much more!

It was clear from all of the panellists that their childhood and parents or grandparents were key influencers in getting them into sport. There was strong opinion that generally the way the media represents and discusses female sports women is more focused on how they look rather than what they have achieved e.g. do the Williams sisters look too masculine? Or what did they wear to the Sports Personality Awards?

There was a strong sense from the panel of the importance of women championing other women, be that encouraging each other to participate or buying tickets to watch women’s sports.

When the audience was asked how many of them had watched either a live women’s sports game or viewed it on TV in the last 6 months 70% had and the panel agreed that the BBC and other media should show women’s sport and treat it as the norm because the population would support it.

It was a very insightful evening and a pleasure to be joined by such inspirational women from a range of professions within sport. Both the panel and the audience could have kept talking for hours!

Due to the clear demand for women’s sessions like this, the Uni Girls Can team are aiming to get Stacey back for another boxing lesson after Easter. Watch out for more information on the Uni Girls Can Facebook page and webpage.

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT UNI GIRLS CAN

 

Find Out More About The New Cycle Track Development

Tilly Hall
March 10, 2016
new cycle track birds eye view

We want to tell you more about our exciting new cycle track development and sport pavilion refurbishment.

Students and staff are invited to find out more about our ambitious plans for a new cycle track and sports pavilion on the Bodington site at Sports Park Weetwood.  Details for the dedicated consultation event are below:

Date: Thursday 17th March
Time: 2pm – 5pm
Location: The Edge reception area

Anyone interested in this exciting project will be able to see the proposed development plans and hear more about the intention to establish Leeds as the primary UK centre for cycling and triathlon.

This impressive new development, open for use by staff, students and members of the public, will include the development of an outdoor closed loop cycling track located on the university Bodington playing fields in north Leeds. There will be a cutting edge, 1.6km tarmac cycle track and refurbished sports pavilion which will be used by staff and students as well as being a new base for British Triathlon’s elite training centre.

The Sport and Physical Activity team will be in attendance on the day to provide further information. Come and speak to us, ask questions and see images of what this fantastic new facility is going to look like.

Find out more on the Campus Developments Website.

Kim Daybell Selected for Rio 2016

Tilly Hall
March 10, 2016
Kim daybel paralympic table tennis player

Kim Daybell, University of Leeds student and Sports Scholar has been selected to represent Paralympics GB in Table Tennis at the Rio2016 Games. 

Kim will compete alongside 11 others as part of the Great Britain team. Following a great start to the year where Kim won bronze in the Lignano Master Open in Italy and was crowned national champion he was thrilled to receive the news he had been selected.

It feels amazing. It is the culmination of 4 years of blood, sweat and tears and to be named as a GB paralympian for a second time is such an honor. It is the biggest stage in sport and I’m over the moon to be part of the squad heading out to Brazil.

My aim for Rio is to be the best athlete I can be and do my country proud. Of course I will be aiming to win a medal and I believe if I perform on the day I will able to achieve it. The level in the world is so high but we have had great preparation and I will be quietly confident going into the games.

Rio 2016 will be Kim’s second Paralympic games having previously competed in London 2012 and the University will be supporting him all the way.

Kim is currently taking a break from studying Medicine at Leeds to train with the national able bodied team in Slovenia. This has been made possible through the support Kim received from the University and through his Sport Scholarship which is funded by the Leeds Alumni department and specifically by Alumni Dr. Steve Ledger.

Tweet fro Kim Daybell about how supportive the university and leeds sport have been

To hear more from Kim tune into BBC Radio Leeds this Friday around 8.15am.

Gillian Finnerty takes Gold

Lucy Wood
March 9, 2016
three snowboarders on a podium

Gillian Finnerty, University of Leeds student and Sports Scholar, has won Gold for her freestyle snowboarding in the recent British Universities Indoor Championships. 

Gillian has recently returned after a three month break from her studies at the University of Leeds to train and compete with the British Boardercross team in Austria. Here she entered her first international freestyle competition, the Zillertal Valley Ralley in Gerlos, Austria, and ranked 5th. In her second international freestyle competition, this time in Mayrhofen, she placed 1st!

On her return to the UK, Gillian celebrated a Gold medal in the female freestyle snowboarding event at the British Universities Indoor Championships which took place in Castleford.

This weekend Gillian will take on the Scottish Slopestyle and has qualified for the World University Games next winter in Kazakstan for Snow boardercross and is hoping to  also qualify for slopestyle.

 

100 Days To Go – Leeds Welcomes Triathlon’s Elite

Tilly Hall
March 4, 2016
brownlee brothers celebrating race together

It’s only 100 days to go until Leeds welcomes the ITU World Triathlon Series to the city on 12th June. To celebrate this event, the University of Leeds is launching an exciting programme of triathlon-inspired activity to get involved in. Open to students, staff and members of the Leeds community there’s something for everyone from taking part in a Go-Tri event for the very first time, to a rousing talk from world famous athletes to learning how to coach triathlon.

 “We have developed an exciting programme of activities and events for the wider Leeds community to be involved in Triathlon in the lead up to the ITU event in the city on 12th June. We’d love for you all to join us and have a go.”

Oliver Hylands, University of Leeds Triathlon Development Officer

You can find out more details about how you can get involved on our triathlon webpage, and for University staff and students considering their first triathlon, there’s also a special bursary available to support entry fees. Contact Oliver for more information: O.Hylands@leeds.ac.uk

Race Day

brownlee brothers running with 100 days to go text

On race day itself, the city will welcome the world’s elite triathletes and there will be a huge amount of interest in our Leeds-based athletes. The University is a key partner, together with British Triathlon and Leeds Beckett University, in the world-renowned Leeds Triathlon Centre which already has 4 athletes who have pre-qualified for the forthcoming Olympic Games in Rio (Alistair and Jonny Brownlee, Non Stanford and Vicky Holland). This select group plus the likes of Gordon Benson, Tom Bishop, Lucy Hall, Mark Buckingham, Jess Learnmonth and Richard Varga are all expected to compete in front of their home crowd as the squad and coaching team continue their preparations for Rio.

“The investment the University of Leeds has made over the last 5 years has placed us at the forefront of world triathlon, in terms of training facilities, coaching and also in terms of opportunities for our students to study a world-class degree and be engaged with the sport at every level.”

Rob Wadsworth, Head of Sport, University of Leeds.

 

Find out more about Triathlon at The University of Leeds here