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Chief Correspondent

 

 
By Chief Correspondent
Published on 17 July 2009
 

Three University of Bath athletes have kicked and punched their way to bronze medals at the World University Games in Belgrade.


Three University of Bath athletes have kicked and punched their way to bronze medals at the World University Games in Belgrade.

Grace McCatty and Lauren Wells were part of the first British women's football team to win a medal at the Games, which was secured with a 4-1 win over France in the third-place play-off.

And Gemma Gibbons, pictured, a 22-year-old sports performance graduate, took bronze in the under-70kg judo competition.

Gibbons, who finished seventh at the last Games in Thailand two years ago, beat Linda Bolder of the Netherlands to secure bronze.

"I was disappointed to lose in the semi-final but I am delighted to leave Belgrade with a bronze medal," she said.

"It is a great honour to represent Great Britain and to win a medal is a great feeling."

Fellow TeamBath players Andy Burns, Kate Walker and Sian Wilson finished out of the medals in their individual competitions.

Burns lost to Sweden's Emil Edmar in the men's under-90kg class. In the women's under-63kg class, Walker beat Turkey's Bahar Buker in the first round but then went down to Olena Sayko of Ukraine, while Wilson lost her opening contest at under-78kg to Raquel Prieto Madrigal of Spain.

Business administration graduate Matt Clay just missed out on a medal in the swimming pool as he finished fourth in a high-quality 50m backstroke final – a race which saw the first five finishers all dip under the previous Games record for the event.

Britain's male footballers, including Gary Warren and Matt Townley, also had to settle for fourth place after losing 1-0 to Japan in the bronze medal match.

However, it was Britain's best performance in the competition since taking bronze in Sheffield in 1991 and team manager Andy Hibbert, a senior teaching fellow in the University of Bath's department of sports development, said it was another step in the right direction.

"It is always disappointing to be so close and miss out on a medal," he said.

"However, on only one other occasion has a GB men's football team finished as high as fourth in this tournament away from home. This performance provides a springboard to greater success in two years' time."

The British tennis team, won two medals – silver in the men's doubles and bronze in the mixed doubles. The team was managed by James Andell and coached by Eve Langley, both based at TeamBath.

Great Britain returned home from the Games in Serbia with seven medals in all – three golds, one silver and three bronzes.

Source: thisisbath.co.uk; Friday, 17th July, 2009