Team Bath Breakthrough Programme student-athlete Susie Seddon-Cowell has joined Paralympic gold-medallists Dimitri Coutya and Piers Gilliver on the University of Bath-based Wheelchair Fencing World Class Programme (WCP) for 2025-26. Also selected on the WCP, operated by the UK Sports Institute (UKSI), at the start of the LA 2028 Paralympic cycle are Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024 medallist Oliver Lam-Watson, four-time Paralympian Gemma Collis, U23 World Champion Josh Waddell, Shah Rashid and Justine Moore. Matt Hammond,...
Wheelchair fencing international Susie Seddon-Cowell has been named as the first winner of a new Rengen Athlete of the Month award for high-performing student-athletes on the Team Bath Breakthrough Programme. Seddon-Cowell, who combines her sport with a PhD Research Programme in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Bath, recently achieved the best result of her international career to date when she placed eighth in the women’s Category A sabre at the Pisa World Cup in...
University of Bath student-athletes won 21 medals, including gold in the swimming pool and on the athletics track, when they proudly represented The SU Bath at the BUCS Nationals 2025 in Sheffield. Sixteen of those medals were secured by the University’s swimming squad during an excellent weekend which saw them place third in the overall rankings. Alumni Fund Sporting Scholar Josh Gammon led the way with gold in both the 50m butterfly (23.72) and 200m...
Wheelchair fencing Paralympic gold-medallists Dimitri Coutya and Piers Gilliver have described an innovative wooden-frame training chair, designed by engineers at the University of Bath in collaboration with British Fencing, as a gamechanger for their sport. The SwordSeat™ – a simple six-piece slot-together design which can be built using minimal tools for around £150 worth of plywood – aims to make wheelchair fencing affordable and accessible to many more clubs and participants. It received its official...
Double Paralympic Champion Dimitri Coutya, who trains at the University of Bath, has been awarded an MBE in the New Year Honours 2025 for his services to fencing. The wheelchair fencer enjoyed an outstanding Paris 2024 Paralympic Games which saw him win gold in both the Category B foil and epee, as well as silver and bronze in the team events with Piers Gilliver and Oliver Lam-Watson. [caption id="attachment_71316" align="alignright" width="292"] David McNulty received his...
Five Paris 2024 medallists were among the Olympians and Paralympians whose achievements were celebrated at a special homecoming reception at the University of Bath. The athletes all train, study or studied at the University, one of the country’s leading institutions for high-performance sport, and were joined at the gathering by staff, coaches and civic representatives from Bath and Somerset. Double Paralympic Champion Dimitri Coutya (wheelchair fencing) and Olympic gold-medallist Kieran Bird (swimming) were in attendance...
A new and improved Student Performance Sport Breakthrough Programme will provide more than 160 University of Bath student-athletes across 25 different sports with bespoke support designed to help them maximise their academic and sporting potential. Supported by Team Bath partners Rengen, the programme offers best-practice personal development and performance support to the students - all identified as having long-term athletic potential – as they seek to make the step up from pre-elite level to sustained...
The Government’s commitment to a £344million investment into Olympic and Paralympic sports over the next four-year cycle, announced in this week's Budget, has been welcomed by UK Sport and its partners, including the University of Bath. It is the equivalent of an extra £9 million a year on Paris-cycle funding levels and Sally Munday, CEO of UK Sport (pictured), said: “We are confident that the amount announced, alongside the excellent support provided by The National...
British wheelchair fencers won a total of six medals at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games, continuing the country’s record as one of the sport’s top competitors. Now, a simple and low-cost wooden frame called the ‘SwordSeat™’, which can be built using minimal tools and materials, aims to make wheelchair fencing accessible to many more clubs and participants. Designed by engineers at the University of Bath in collaboration with British Fencing, the SwordSeat is a pair...
Wheelchair fencers Dimitri Coutya, Piers Gilliver and Oliver Lam-Watson are returning from Paris to their Bath training base with 10 Paralympic medals between them following a week to remember in the Grand Palais. The trio concluded the Games by winning bronze in the men’s team epee competition on Saturday, beating Poland 45-28 in the medal decider to back up the silver medal they had won in Thursday’s team foil event. That meant Coutya, Gilliver and...
