Swansea Students Shine at Commonwealth
Congratulations to our very own Swansea University students and alumni for their success at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, representing Team Wales and Team Cyprus during the international, multisport event.
Alumni and students from Swansea University competed in Swimming, Lawn Bowls and Hockey, with rising star Medi Harris claiming a Bronze medal in the 100m backstroke event, with a time of 59.62s, bettered only by the current and former world record holders.
Earlier in the year Medi set a new personal best time of 59.24s, which would have been enough for a place in last year’s Tokyo Olympics final. Promising Swansea University swimmers Lewis Fraser and Rebecca Sutton also broke ground during the games, Fraser slashing 0.2 seconds off his 100m Fly PB to finish as the 10th fastest semi-finalist, and Sutton taking off over a third of a second off her PB in the Women’s 100m freestyle semi-final. Both narrowly missed out on final spots.
Talented youngsters Joe Small and Liam White also put in strong performances in the men’s 100m backstroke event, both coming agonisingly close to final spots, with times of 55.22s and 55.68s respectively.
Students Panayiotis Panaretos and Sofoklis Mouglis were also selected to represent Team Cyprus in the swimming events, competing in the 100m breaststroke and 100m backstroke individually, and the men's 4x100m medley relay.
In other sports, graduate Jacob Draper featured prominently for Team Wales during their hockey campaign, getting pool stage wins over Team Canada and Team Ghana on their way to a general classification finish of 6th overall.
Nursing graduate and Team Wales captain Anwen Butten competed in her record sixth Commonwealth Games in the lawn bawls event. After the games, Butten announced her retirement from competing at major tournaments for Wales, bringing down the curtains on a glittering career.
Imelda Phillips, Swansea University’s Performance Sport Manager, said:
“Congratulations to all our students and alumni on their sporting success at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games. Everyone at Swansea University is exceptionally proud of what our athletes achieved during this exciting summer of sport.
“This is the highest number of athletes that we have had selected for a major championship from our high-performance swimming programme and is a testament to the dedication and commitment of our student athletes, and the excellent work provided by our coaches, support staff, and Talented Athlete Scholarship Scheme dual career programme. We’re delighted by how they have represented themselves and the University on the global stage, at what is an exciting chapter for sport at Swansea University!’’