Performance of the month - January 2010

This month’s winner of the £30 Waterstone’s book voucher is Sarah Haycroft (1st year History). Sarah was named as the winner of the Higgins Youth Award which is judged by the Hockey Writers’ Club for the most outstanding boy and girl player on a national level. Also short listed for the female award this month was Emily Atkinson (1st year Geography and Economics) while Peter Jackson (1st year Geography) was short listed in the boy’s category. After earning her first senior England cap in an indoor competition in December, Sarah was called up as a late replacement for the England team for the Eurohockey Indoor Nations Challenge. Joining fellow University of Birmingham student Susie Gilbert, Sarah helped England to win the tournament and gain promotion to the Trophy division of the tournament for 2011. Sarah, Susie and Emily, together with fellow scholars Sarah Page (1st year Geography), Sophie Bray (2nd year Psychology) and Kirsty Dawson (3rd year Medicine) helped Birmingham to win the Division 2 (North) of the England Hockey National Indoor League, and subsequently gain promotion to the National Division 1.

Other Notable Achievements

Our badminton scholars are rounding into good shape ahead of February’s English National Championships. Catherine Grant (2nd year Physiotherapy) won the mixed doubles and reached the semi-finals of the ladies doubles at the Lancashire Challenger and finished runner-up in the mixed doubles at the Wimbledon National Elite Tournament. Richard Wrigley (MPhil Sports Coaching) beat the number 2 seed on his way to reaching the semi-final of the Lancashire Challenger, and reached the final of the Cambridgeshire Open, while James Lauder (1st year Sports Science with Materials Technology) reached the semi-final of the men’s doubles at the Lancashire Challenger. James then went on to reach the final of the men’s doubles at the Derbyshire/ Nottinghamshire U19 Open where Alyssa Lim (1st year English) reached the final of the women’s doubles. January was another busy month for the athletics scholars, with many of them picking up regional titles both indoors and on cross country. European Junior Bronze medallist James Wilkinson (2nd year Sport and Exercise Sciences) was clear favourite to win the Northern U20 Cross Country title, and didn’t disappoint. He finished 21 seconds clear of the rest of the field, and led his Leeds City team mates to the team title. In a much closer run, Daniel Clorley (1st Year Sport and Exercise Sciences) was a surprise winner of the Southern U20 Cross Country title. His 3 second victory finished off what was to be a good month for the Luton athlete having picked up the Senior 1500m title at the South of England Indoor Championships. Ed Aston (3rd year Mathematics) made it a double victory for our middle distance athletes at those championships as he was a comfortable winner of the 800m title, and followed up with 2nd place at the Elán Meeting in Bratislava where he was competing for the England Senior team. At the Northern Indoor Championships Alison Leonard (2nd year Biology), won the Senior 1500m title in fine fashion. Her winning time of 4:26.22 was a new Championship Best Performance.

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