It was a golden day for Bath-based athletes at Glasgow 2014 yesterday, with both Megan Fletcher and Chris Walker-Hebborn topping the podium on day two of the Commonwealth Games.
Team Bath judo player Fletcher led the way, becoming the first athlete training at the University to strike gold at the Games when she beat New Zealand’s Moira De Villiers in the final of the women’s under-70kg class.
The England judo player had earlier despatched British number one Sally Conway, fighting for Scotland, in the semi-finals.
She said: “I beat the British number one in the semi-final and that was an amazing performance. I was so emotional after that. But to win gold as well, I don’t think I’ve had a better day ever.
“It’s not really sunk in and the day has been a bit of a blur. I just feel so happy to have a gold medal in my hands. My preparations have been fantastic and it’s really paid off. Gold was my target, I knew I had a tough draw, but I always had confidence.”
And University of Bath-based swimmer Chris Walker-Hebborn set a Commonwealth Games record of 53.12 seconds to claim 100m backstroke gold.
“It’s been a tough few years but I’m buzzing to come out with a gold medal,” said Walker-Hebborn, who trains at British Swimming’s National Training Centre Bath.
“This is for my mum and my dad as they stood by me through my rubbish years,” he added. “It wasn’t necessarily the most stacked event here, but I wanted to come away with a win and a world contending time, which I did.”
Walker-Hebborn also collected a bronze medal in the 4x100m freestyle relay after swimming in the heats and helping the England team qualify for the final.
Tom Reed, a University of Bath Business Management graduate and Team Bath judo player, won silver for England n the men’s under-81kg class, going down to England team-mate Owen Livesey in the final.
“I don’t know what happened. It went down to the wire. Fair play to him. It was always going to be a tactical fight and come down to the smallest thing. That’s judo,” he said.
There was also a third silver medal in two days for 18-year-old Siobhan-Marie O’Connor, this time in the 100m butterfly final, where she finished just .05 seconds behind Canada’s Katerine Savard.
Also in the pool, there was a bronze medal for University of Bath Sports Performance graduate Calum Jarvis. The Welsh swimmer prevented the Australians from taking a clean sweep of the 200m freestyle medals by taking third in 1:46.53.
More than 70 athletes with University of Bath links were selected to compete at Glasgow 2014. They will represent 10 countries and compete in 11 sports.
