VIDEO: Students and graduates excited for ultimate home competition as University of Bath hosts Pentathlon World Champs
This month’s Pentathlon World Championships at the University of Bath are the ultimate home competition for 11 members of the Pentathlon GB squad who also study or studied here.
The University’s Sports Training Village (STV) has been home to Pentathlon GB’s National Training Centre for the past 25 years and, during that time, dozens of the country’s top pentathletes have taken the opportunity to combine sport and education.
They include London 2012 silver-medallist and 2014 World Champion Samantha Murray and both reigning Olympic gold-medallists, Joe Choong and Kate French.
Mathematics graduate Choong is in the Pentathlon GB squad for the 2023 World Championships, taking place from 19th to 28th August at the STV (click here to buy tickets), along with fellow alumni Sam Curry (Politics and International Relations), Olivia Green (Sport and Exercise Science), Myles Pillage (Biochemistry), Jess Varley (Natural Sciences) and Guy Anderson, who completed his Accounting and Finance degree this summer.
He is looking forward to continuing his sporting education at the World Championships, where he will team up with the vastly-experienced Curry in the men’s relay.
Five current students have also been selected including Emma Whitaker, who is supported by a Santander Sporting Scholarship, and fellow Sports Performance student Ross Charlton, who is excited to be making his senior World Championships debut on home soil.
Joining him in the men’s team is Charlie Brown (Sports Management and Coaching) who is enjoying a breakthrough international season which has seen him win World Cup mixed relay gold with Kerenza Bryson and European Games men’s team gold with Choong and Pillage.
The pentathlon competition gets under way on Tuesday 22nd August with the men’s and women’s relay, the latter featuring two students – Alex Bousfield (Politics and International Relations) and Gina Speakman (Sports Performance).
It is a first-ever senior international pentathlon competition for Speakman, who has previously represented GB in two Laser-Run World Championships – they are taking place in Britain for the first time at the STV from 19th to 21st August.
Tickets are on sale now for the World Championships priced from just £5. Click here to purchase online and see a full competition schedule.
Click here to find out more about combining study and sport at the University of Bath.
