May 2018 - Sport & Physical Activity

The Brownlee Centre is a Finalist

admin

May 29, 2018

In great news, it can be announced that the University of Leeds, Brownlee Centre facility at Bodington Playing Fields has been shortlisted as a finalist in the West Yorkshire Building Excellence Award!

The Brownlee Centre is the UK’s first custom-made built triathlon training centre; an iconic, architectural facility that is home to the renowned Leeds Triathlon Centre in association with the University of Leeds and named after the elite, legendary, University of Leeds alumni duo, Alistair and Jonathan Brownlee. Being shortlisted for this award is a great achievement, that highlights the construction and design of the Brownlee Centre and Bodington Playing Fields.

The Building Excellence Awards are all about the essence of good buildings. Our finalists are not judged on architectural beauty, but on the ‘excellence’ show from a construction and technical building control point of view. Our awards showcase buildings and design teams that have had to tussle with technical issues, difficult sites, innovation and creative solutions. – Architects Data File

The awards night will take place at the Best Western Cedar Court hotel in Bradford on Friday 8 June, the overall winners will qualify for the LABC Grand Finals in London on Friday 9 November which is the largest business to business awards in the UK.

Sports Colours Awards 2018

Heather Hall

May 24, 2018

The Sports Colours were back on Wednesday the 25th of April to celebrate the momentous achievements of sports teams, students, staff and coaches over the year. Replacing sweaty sports kit for black tie the awards were a fantastic opportunity for everyone to come together and celebrate the success we have had at Leeds Sport this year as part of the overarching Celebrate Week.

Hosted by our amazing amazing activities officer Jess Bassett and Doug Edell the Sports Representative the evening kicked off with the presentation of the first set of awards. Called up to the stage were members from a whole range of sports for Club Colours. 64 individuals gained recognition for their hard work and commitment to their chosen sports. Full Colours were given out to 43 individuals this year, for athletes who continually perform at a high level for their teams, showcasing the talent we have in Leeds.

The Refectory swiftly moved the evening on with an excellent 3 course meal. DanceSport then treated us to a wonderful performance demonstrating the exceptional talent among our dancers. We continued to look towards our extraordinary athletes by celebrating our Sports Scholars who are supported in their sporting endeavours over their time at Leeds.

There were more congratulations to come as we welcomed 22 Gryphon and White Rose award winners to the stage. These awards are given to those who have excelled or shown outstanding commitment in their sport.

This years Gryphon Award winners were:

Christina Nick – Athletics

Cameron Austwick – Cuesports

Patrick Green – Judo

Amber Brennan – Karate

Polly Brooks – Lacrosse

Anya Wood – Netball

Amelia Hall – Netball

Bea Skingsley – Netball

Jenny Davies – Skiing

Nicolas Peters – Ultimate Frisbee

Jonah Leake – Ultimate Frisbee

The White rose winners were:

Robert Nayagam – Boxing

Emma Woods – Cricket

Emma Poole – Dancesport

Elizabeth Stanton – Football

Rachel Weaver – Football

Emily Marshall – Kickboxing & Kraav Maga

Lydia Griffiths – Lacrosse

Helena Grennan – Netball

Clare Chapman – Rugby Union

Andrew Marks – Rugby League

Jonny Bolton – Ultimate Frisbee

This built us up to our 10 big awards of the evening. With 46 different nominees there was some fierce competition particularly with the new addition of Team of the Year. Rachel Weaver took home the first award for Gryphon Leadership, which she given for all her volunteer work with the Women’s Football team. LawSoc Netball claimed Our Social League Club of the Year for the second time. Helena Grenna was awarded the Sue Jacklyn Club Coach of the Year Award, continuing Netball’s success. Joan Young, the head Netball coach, received the Mike Brook Award for Performance Coach of the Year as she lead her teams to great success this year.

Novice Women’s Rowing were crowned as our Most Improved Team of the Year was awarded to. This large team of girls who since only starting the sport in september have placed highly at indoor competition. At BUCS Head they achieved gold medal placement which is something Leeds has never done before. Their boat became the quickest university Novice Women’s quad in the country!

Rosie Blount from Rugby Union received the Most Improved Athlete Award. From never touching a rugby ball until university she became the leading try scorer for the 1st team in the 2016/17 season. Since starting the sport she had played for Darlington Mowden Park Sharks, Yorkshire Ladies and England Students 7s, an incredible achievement for someone with only three years experience in the sport.

Women’s Rugby Union took home our brand new award for Most Improved Club of the Year. After freshers fair and GIAG’s their club doubled in size! The huge influx of new members has lead to the creation of a brand new development team who hope to enter into the BUCS league next year. Starting from their varsity win – for the first time in the club’s history – the girls continued to smash their way through the BUCS league despite moving up a division and facing tougher competition.

Kim Daybell, Sports Scholar and Table Tennis pro received the accolade of Roberts Athlete of the Year. After competing at two Olympic Games and many open events Kim has had phenomenal success. Recently he gained two silver medals in the PTT US Open despite playing against some tough competition. Over the Easter break he made his debut at the Commonwealth Games. Kim managed to take away a silver medal almost beating his fellow team-mate Ross Wilson.

Men’s Cuesports 1’s took home the title of Team of the Year after some fantastic performances across the season. Managing to retain the title of BUCS 8-Ball Pool Team Champions whilst also gaining a new title of 9-Ball Pool Team Champions, something which no other club has ever achieved. Many members of the team have also performed exceptionally over the year with selection for England Student teams.

Our final winners of the evening were to take home the prestigious Club of the Year Award. There was some tough competition between four of our biggest Clubs who have all achieved some amazing things this year. However, Women’s Football were victorious! Their huge BUCS success and all their work within the local community gave them the edge. The 1st team were undefeated in their quest for retaining their position at the top of the league and as BUCS Trophy winners. It is clear that the 13 dedicated committee members all wanted the best for the club by fundraising for two charities and increasing their contact with alumni to help raise funding. The girls were ecstatic with their well deserved win and we wish them all the best for next year too!

UOLBC take BUCS Regatta 2018

Heather Hall

May 17, 2018

The University of Leeds Boat Club was established back in 1919 and since then it has moved from strength to strength. It has become one of the largest mixed gender sports societies at the university with over 200 members.

On Saturday the 5th of may the club headed down to Holme Pierrepont in Nottingham for the annual BUCS Regatta. Leeds sent total of sixteen boats with all four squads representing the club at the three day event. It was set to be a great weekend with seemingly perfect conditions and the hottest May bank holiday on record! Every squad had been training hard over the Easter holidays with the senior squad enduring an intensive training camp in Tilburg in the Netherlands. Meanwhile the novice rowers headed out on the Leeds Canal for some essential race preparation over the break.

The club were pushing to continue their success after achieving the best results the club has seen since 1995 for the Head of the River Race. Whilst the women were pushing for some strong results since they achieved the best results in the Women’s Head of the River Race since 2003.

Hard work paid off for the club as some fantastic results were achieved by all. Two of our Sports Scholars, Matt Brigham and Chloe Vialou-Clark both achieved B finals. Both individuals did exceedingly well, racing against some of the toughest competition from prestigious rowing universities.

Results from all the finals can be seen below:

Saturday 5th

Womens Intermediate 2-, 6th C Final

Mens Intermediate 8+, 6th C Final

Mens Intermediate 1x, 3rd B Final

Mens Beginner 4+ (a), 3rd C Final

Mens Beginner 4+ (b), 6th F Final

Mens Beginner 4x, 5th C Final

Sunday 6th

Womens Intermediate 8+, 3rd C Final

Mens Intermediate 2x, 1st D Final

Womens Beginner 4+ (a), 6th F Final

Womens Beginner 4+ (b), 2nd F Final

Womens Beginner 4x, 5th B Final

Mens Beginner 8+, 5th D Final

Monday 7th

Womens Intermediate 4+, 2nd D Final

Womens Beginner 8+, 5th C Final

Mens Beginner 1x, 6th F Final

Novice Women celebrating after their race at BUCS Regatta

After their huge success at BUCS Regatta the rowers received a visit from the Vice-Chancellor and Deputy Head of Sport Patrick Craig. They spent the afternoon at the Boathouse while over 80 students took to the water in the clubs 19 strong fleet. Students were also out in force coaching children from the Gorse Boat Club, who work in partnership with UOLBC. Whilst the Club Captain and Secretary talked to the Vice-Chancellor about their plans for development and growth for UOLBC the rest of the rowers headed out on their training session in preparation for the Alumni Regatta.

The club hosted their own Alumni Sports Day, challenging crews gone by to a 600m regatta sprint down the canal. The alumni definitely proved their strength winning every event! Although the races didn’t quite fall in favour of the students the rest of the afternoon did.

Club captain Emily Lindsay has been part of the Boat Club since 2013 when she started her degree. Since then she has been on committee four times and has sustained the roll of Club Captain twice. In honour of Emily’s hard work and dedication to the club they decided to christen their newest boat after her.

With all their recent successes Leeds look set on achieving even more in their upcoming regatta season and hope to bring back some wins. As they continue their training into exam season we wish them the best of luck and hopefully a trip to Henley will still be on the cards.

New TRIBE Member Benefit

admin

May 15, 2018

We’re thrilled to present a brand new Edge Member Benefit. TRIBE will be a companion to your healthy lifestyle, a boost to your workouts and a nutritious element to your meals.

TRIBE are the leading natural performance nutrition brand and athletic community. Born off the back of a 1000 miles run across Eastern Europe they set out to develop a range of 100% natural energy and recovery products. These products are made out of natural whole foods and designed to provide key nutrients pre and post workout.

TRIBE are giving Edge members the chance to save 50% on their first two TRIBE packs. Choose from 6 different ranges including energy bars, recovery bars, recovery shakes and a hydration drink.
TRIBE packs contain 6 natural energy & recovery products and can be completely custom built to suit your specific training needs!

To sign up, simply use the code EDGELEEDS at the checkout to redeem the offer.

Athlete of the Month: May

Max Roger

May 10, 2018

Down at The Edge we have an exclusive strength and conditioning facility open to our gryphons who compete in performance sports. Working alongside dedicated strength and conditioning coaches all our athletes are constantly pushing to achieve great things in their chosen sports.

Members of our sports teams are now putting forward a gryphon of the month, an individual who is excelling in their sport.

Last month we caught up with American Footballer Felix Titherley before he set off on his German adventure.

Who do you play for and when do you play?

I have signed with the Rostock Griffins in the GFL 2 (German Football League) for the 2018 season. There are 16 games in the season, which starts in April and lasts until September with a 3 week break for the European Championships in July.

What is your training schedule?

There will be at least three on-field training sessions per week, with a number of training camps in the pre-season. On top of the on-field sessions, there will be daily skills and S&C sessions throughout the season including one recovery-based session and one ‘priming’ session to prepare for game day.

What Strength and Conditioning (S&C) training do you do?

Currently I have no skills training, so have more strength and conditioning sessions than usual. The goals now are to increase my conditioning and robustness. I’m also aiming to convert all of the high-volume strength work I’ve done into top-end strength.

What is your favourite exercise?

Weighted seated box jumps. They are low impact, but I feel like they help me to develop a lot of power and ensure that I hit triple-extension.

What is your least favourite exercise?

Anything snatch related. I struggle to get the required range of motion for it. Instead I utilise clean pulls for a similar force production.

How do you feel S&C has helped you develop as an athlete?

S&C has helped me to put on size, to develop speed and power, and given me confidence that I will be able to perform on the field and deal with the high-impact nature of American Football. When I am on the field I feel confident in my abilities to physically compete against other athletes. A key factor in this is the ‘priming’ sessions that I do before each game. These sessions prepare my body to move explosively on the field, which helps me focus on the game.

As a Strength and Conditioning Coach at the University of Leeds I have been training Felix for the last 18 months.

Felix is the sort of athlete that you want to walk through the door. He is a 24/7 athlete, doing everything he can in and out of the gym to achieve his goals. Since he has come to us Felix has got a lot stronger and more powerful and importantly he feels that he is physically more competent on the field.

Below is a video of Felix achieving a 1 rep max Back Squat. This was a 15kg personal best from the last time that Felix tested his 1RM in 2017. With this being the 3rd to last session that Felix did in Leeds it was a fantastic way to end his training here, again showing that hard work pays off.

https://twitter.com/Leeds_Sport/status/993819273658322944

Leeds Head of Sport Goes Down Under

Heather Hall

May 1, 2018

With the Commonwealth Games been and gone Suzanne Glavin tells us about her volunteering experiences in Australia.

After recording an online interview, Suzanne was selected for a place on the Press Operations Team. Here she helped look after the photographers at the triathlon and various cycling events at the Commonwealth Games this year.

She said:

“I feel like the luckiest Games Shaper! I managed to go to three amazing outdoor venues with some super sport. This included Southport Broadwater Parklands, where I worked on triathlon events. It was a super to see – from the photographers’ position at the finish – Jess Learmonth, one of our Leeds Triathlon Centre athletes, medal.”

Jess was England’s first medallist of the Games consequently bagging a silver. Unfortunately, the Brownlee brothers – Jonny and Alistair – failed to medal in the men’s tri event, finishing seventh and 10th respectively. Fellow Leeds Alumni, Tom Bishop, came home in 19th while second year Sport Science and Physiology student, Tyler Smith, competing as the flag-bearer for Bermuda, was 21st.

But, the action didn’t end there for Suzanne. She also had the opportunity to work with the photographers for the para triathlon and mixed relays. Here she saw the Brownlee brothers win a silver medal as well as Tyler Smith competing in the mixed relay.

Suzanne then headed to Currumbin…

“… a beautiful, idyllic part of coastline with an amazing nature sanctuary set just behind. Here, I was supporting the Race Walk. It’s was a 5am start! I also went to help out with cycle time-trial and then again for all the cycle road races. To finish my most incredible journey I headed back to the Southport Broadwater Parklands to volunteer on the marathon!”

Suzanne’s adventures across Australia really proved the benefits of volunteering in sport. Not only can you travel world but you can also make a difference. Through contributing, collaborating and working as a team the experience of volunteering is priceless and well worth the hard work.

Suzanne finished by telling us about the impact of the games and her experience:

Suzanne on the ‘grassy knoll’ at the race walk event

“It’s relaxed, fun, friendly and exciting, with lots of people carrying their country’s flag with them. The locals, in particular, were so proud of their athletes and their homeland. The world coming to visit genuinely pleased the residents. The Commonwealth Games are known as the friendly games and this one was no exception.”

The Brownlee Centre is a Finalist