On Friday 29th July the 2022 Commonwealth games kicked off in Birmingham. We had a fantastic week of watching 11 days of sporting action whilst keeping an eye out for alumni and staff from NTU competing.
The week kicked off with our honorary doctorate, Emily Campbell, being one of the two flagbearers for England at the opening ceremony. During her weightlifting event, Emily did England proud winning gold. The two-time European champion lifted a record 286kg in Women’s 87kg with a personal best aggregate weight across two lifting disciplines. Emily achieved a commonwealth record of 124kg within the snatch discipline and a record of 262kg for clean and jerk. A huge congratulations to Emily for this exceptional achievement. You can watch more about Emily and her honorary degree here.
Our NTU Lead Coach for Athletics, Dr Matt Long, served as England’s Team Coach at the Commonwealth Games Development Camp. He worked alongside 16 England Team Coaches at Loughborough University preparing the team for the coming 11 days. Dr Long spent his time lecturing on the history of the Commonwealth Games in the context of Empire and postcolonialism. As one of our Senior Criminology Lecturers, Long delivered the games in the context of the Windrush Scandal and Black Lives Matter protests as well as discussing his work on the Commonwealth Games legacy project.
Dr Long has led his country 11 times as England Team Manager and Coach. He states ‘it’s an honour to be a part of the Games which has a fully integrated Para-athletics programme and where there is parity of medal allocation across genders.’ Dr Long intends to use his work on the Commonwealth Games Legacy project to get the younger generation to take up athletics to desist them from anti-social behaviour and crime whilst allowing his second-year students to study the individuals as their focus group for their service learning module.
Alumni and previous NTU scholar, James Albery, has been playing for England hockey since 2017 and contributed to their win against South Africa allowing them to secure the Bronze. A huge congratulations to James on the team for their third consecutive bronze and their 6-3 win.
It was great to see NTU represented on the world stage, a huge congratulations to our representatives. We can’t wait to see what the future holds for you!
NTU Sport Blog 